A lot of events still arrive on paper, like a flyer, a school notice, or a printed schedule. You can text Drift a photo of it and ask it to add the event to your calendar.
Step 1: Connect Drift to iMessage. In Drift, open Messaging, add the number you text from, and send the first text Drift writes for you to Drift’s own number. It works on every plan, Free included. If Drift’s number is full, connect your own Photon project by pasting its Project ID and Project Secret, then text the 10-digit pairing code to your agent’s number. That takes about ten minutes the first time, and the full walkthrough is in the iMessage setup guide. Once your phone is paired, only your phone reaches your agent.
Step 2: Send the photo with a short note. Take a picture of the flyer or invitation and send it to Drift with something like “add this to my calendar”. The note tells Drift what you want done with the picture.
Step 3: Drift reads it and books the event. Drift reads the date, time, and place from the photo and creates the event. An event that only involves you is added straight away, while an event that would invite someone else asks first, because Google emails every guest on an invitation.
What the photo replaces. Without this, the flyer stays on the fridge until the day has already passed, or you type the details into your calendar by hand and get one of them wrong. Sending the photo moves the event into the place you actually check, which is the whole reason the event was worth writing down. If something in the picture is unclear, such as a missing year or a time that could be morning or evening, ask Drift what it read before it books anything. It is easier to fix the details in the thread than to find the wrong event later.
"[photo of a flyer] add this to my calendar" — Drift reads the event details from the flyer and adds it to your Google Calendar.
"[photo of a schedule] put the home games on my calendar" — Drift reads the schedule and creates an event for each home game.