Google SMS is a service from Google you can access by sending a text message from your cellphone to GOOGL (46645). This service, currently available in Canada and the United States, allows you to retrieve information such as driving directions and movie showtimes from Google. You can use Google SMS to:

1. Get driving directions.
To get driving directions, simply text “start to destination”, for example “Washington to New York”. You can use a combination of addresses, cities, postal/zip codes and even airport codes in your query.

2. Search the web.
Text “G query” to have the first two search results of your query sent to you in a SMS.

3. Get business listing at your location.
Craving for some sushi but can’t find a place? Text “sushi” along with your location (city, zip code) for a listing of sushi restaurants in your area.

4. Ask simple questions.
You can send simple queries such as “toronto population” to Google SMS and it will answer you. Note that Google SMS is still in Beta and many of my queries were not answered correctly. For example, “earth population” and “world population” didn’t work for me.

5. Find word definitions.
Simply text “define word” to obtain a definition of ‘word’.

6. Perform calculations.
Text the calculation you’d like done such as “6+4*3”. Most cellphones come with a calculator nowadays but it’s still handy for more complex calculations.

7. Get movie showtimes.
You can receive various information such as movie showtimes, critics and theater listing by texting Google SMS. To get details on a movie, simply text “movie name”. To get showtimes and a listing of theater playing it near you, add the location to your query, for example “movie name New York”. To get a listing of the top movies, text “movie: location”, where ‘location’ is a city or a zip/postal code.

8. Perform translations.
Text “translate word to language” to have ‘word’ translated into ‘language’.

9. Convert currency.
Text the conversion such as “currency of Canada in US money”.

10. Lookup area codes.
To see which region an area code covers, send a SMS with the area code such as “604”.

11. Retrieve flights info.
Text your flight number to receive information such as arrival/departure time and flight status.

12. Retrieve stock quotes.
Send a SMS with “GOOG” to get Google’s latest stock quotes.

13. Get help.
You can always get help information on Google SMS from Google if you simply text “help”.

Google SMS is still in beta and far from perfect, but it has already proven very useful and it can only get better.