ChesSMS: Using Unicode to play Chess over SMS

http://www.twilio.com/engineering/2012/11/08/adventures-in-unicode-sms

by chadrs • 14 years ago

159 22 14 years ago

twilio.com

pla3rhat3r• 14 years ago

Tipzntrix• 14 years ago

That is some fancy stuff.

debacle• 14 years ago

For those who want the TLDR:

> You can play ChesSMS by texting "PLAY" to +1 (415) 494-8454.

Working with SMS is a very interesting space because of the limitations of the protocol.

jaytaylor• 14 years ago

This is pretty cool and clever too. I'd like to see more SMS games!

twilsher• 14 years ago

good summary, though I would claim another takeaway from this is that SMS is also more capable than most people realize.

chriwend• 14 years ago

This is so awesome

dsl• 14 years ago

The SMS interface appears to already be overloaded. (FYI, standard phone numbers can send a maximum of 1 SMS a second, this limit is enforced by the carriers and applies to everyone even Twillio)

chadrs5• 14 years ago

What you say about rate limiting is true, but actually you weren't getting responses because my account was suspended for about 15 minutes.

I don't think even the frontpage of HN would be capable of getting enough chess players for 1 msg/sec to be too slow.

sneak• 14 years ago

The top of the frontpage would certainly be.

chadrs5• 14 years ago

(Author here)

Sorry guys, it appears the traffic accidentally caused my balance to go too negative and my account got suspended! D'oit! Fixed now!

jeffiel• 14 years ago

Deadbeat!

rubyrescue• 14 years ago

so great! can you open source the erlang part?

EDIT - sorry just found the link at the bottom - www.github.com/twilio/chessms

dsr122• 14 years ago

This is the work of a true hacker! Every programmer should have the attitude to look beyond the obstacles and strive to find solutions to the problems that they face.

dsr122• 14 years ago

I sent an SMS to play but haven't received a response yet. Can it be played by people from outside the USA?

chadrs5• 14 years ago

It should! Is your carrier listed on http://www.twilio.com/sms/pricing ? If it is, send me an email, chad ät twilio.com

patrickod• 14 years ago

Such a great use of SMS. Brilliant article too. Really enjoyed reading through your thought process.

jmoverley2• 14 years ago

+1 i've been a messaging sms/mms core network architect for many years (for a uk operator), was a good read! nice work chad!

the12• 14 years ago

    &\&^&]&[&Z&]&^&\ 
    &_&_&_&_&_&_&_&_ 
      %?  %?  %?  %? 
    %?  %?  %?  %? 
      %?  %?  %?  %? 
    %?  %?  %?  %? 
    &Y&Y&Y&Y&Y&Y&Y&Y 
    &V&X&W&U&T&W&X&V

This is what I get.

chadrs5• 14 years ago

ah! I'm guessing you're on Sprint/Virgin/Boost.

Sorry... there's literally nothing I can do to fix that. Sprint simply just doesn't support non-GSM characters. You can send from AT&T to Sprint and see for yourself :(

If you're not on Sprint, send me a message at chad át Twilio.com and give me some more details.

the12• 14 years ago

Yes, it is Sprint :(

jmoverley2• 14 years ago

chad: gsm 03.42 might aid your final problem :)

chadrs5• 14 years ago

very interesting. My understanding was that most handsets didn't implement compression but I think it's worth a try.

ChesSMS: Using Unicode to play Chess over SMS

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