I like this idea but I'd like to know if they'd also send you text message spam that eats up your text service. I looked at the site and I couldn't find anything that said that they would or wouldn't do that.

juanitob

Whatever you do, do not send "mcdonalds large fries". You will be horrified!

Nice feature - I'll share with the fiancee.

Chris

This is really cool for people who have to deal with multiple food allergies. You always look stupid looking at the restaurant's poster. People look at you and say "you're at a fast food joint, why are you bothering with diet information?"

I don't eat at a lot of FF joints but sometimes it's just easier than going back home and cooking.

Castle1914

Cute, but the biggest problem with this idea is that it's largely useless in a real-world situation. After all, it only provides information for one menu item. You can't do a side-by-side comparison like you can with most fast-food chains' websites.

It's simply not practical to send multiple SMS requests while you're in the drive-through lane, trying to figure out what's healthy. At most, you could figure out what worse between two (maybe three) items.

Deprong Mori

On investigation I retract my interest in this. It only sends calorie and fat/protein info. It's useless for allergy info.

Oh well. :(

Castle1914

This is a short code SMS address[1]. Does anyone know if it gets billed to one's cell phone or is it a free short code like the ones Google provides for Gcalendar? Someone else mentioned spam, which is also possible.

[en.wikipedia.org]

jtimberman

On the site it says that asking for nutrition info is an "opt-in" and that you have to text "stop" to the same number to "opt-out". Hmm, I sense possible text spam.
However, I'm going to try it out and see what happens. I'll report my findings here.

juanitob

I'd expect the SMS response to any McDonald's menu item to be "If you have to ask, find another restaurant."

OX4

@OX4:

Couldnt agree more. if you're inquiring about fat content in a place like mcdonalds you're wasting your texts. Its a lose lose situation. Well, technically i guess its a gain gain situation. By the time you leave you'll be 5 pounds heavier. Its a neat idea, but dont really see how useful it is. You already feel shame for being in a fast food restaurant, no need to make yourself feel worse by getting the fat content sent to you.

zrag

I tried querying Chili's Awesome Blossom and only got the results for 2oz of the sauce.

Johnay

Hello. I am the developer responsible for this application. I'm totally stoked that I found it listed on lifehacker (i'm a huge fan, i own the book - it goes with me everywhere).

Anyway, I'm glad everyone digs it...

@zrag:
For those that don't or just plain old don't get it (mostly the people that don't understand its usefulness), let me explain... we cater to people who feel like they can't "do it themselves"... so we try to give them tools. This is a free service from us... the only cost to you is what your mobile provider charges. I always recommend people to use it if they have unlimited texting (like me... sprint charges $5 for unlimited monthly texts).

@OX4:
I wish.

@juanitob:
As the developer of this app, I take this very seriously, and I assure you that this app DOES NOT SPAM. Those stupid "opt-in" and "opt-out" messages are required by the mobile providers, essentially they are useless in this context because the machine will only respond if you ask it a question.

Anyway, i'm actually here to say thanks to LifeHacker. So thank you LifeHacker.

rwldrn

@rwldrn: Thank you for confirming that. I sent my first requests over 24 hours ago and I haven't received any text spam yet. The whole opting thing confused me so I'm glad you cleared it up.

juanitob

For those with an iphone, open the page in Safari and just bookmark it to your home screen, and bypass the SMS stuff.

BubbaJudge