Control your TiVo via text message with Kwiry

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CBS Interactive)

We already knew text messaging service Kwiry could perform some cool tricks via text messaging--things like adding products to your Amazon.com wish list or adding movies to your Netflix queue. But now the service is adding rudimentary TiVo control to the list.

TiVo already offers more detailed DVR access via its Web site, as well as TiVo Mobile (for smartphones with Web browsers), but the Kwiry service should work with even the most rudimentary cell phones, so long as they have text messaging capability.

The TiVo beta should be available on Kwiry Wednesday. Here's how it's supposed to work: link your TiVo Series2 or Series3 DVR to your Kwiry account (a one-time affair on the Kwiry Web site), and you should be able to command your DVR to record shows via a simple text to 59479 ("kwiry").

Kwiry says the service will automatically schedule a recording of the next episode of the show in question, so "tivo the office" should grab the next episode of the Steve Carell dramedy. Sounds easy enough, but we wonder how smoothly it'll work, especially with shows that have multiple syndicated episodes on multiple channels--will kwiry be smart enough to grab the new episode of Lost, and not the rerun on G4 or Sci-Fi? Thankfully, the service is free, so you can experiment with impunity.