How Pijnhol works

Who is Pijnhol for?

Pijnhol is for someone who cares intensely about a small number of specific subjects and does not want to check anything to keep up with them. The typical subscriber follows one thing closely — a football club, a company, a court case, a musician, an election, an industry regulator — and wants to know the moment something happens to it, without taking on a general news habit to get there.

Concretely, it suits: a fan who wants transfer and injury news for one club and nothing else; a professional tracking a single company's product launches and leadership changes;someone following a legal case, an inquiry or a policy decision through to its outcome; a person keeping an eye on a family member's industry, a hometown, or a visa or immigration rule change; and anyone who has deleted news apps because the feed was the problem, not the news.

It also suits people for whom an app is the barrier. Pijnhol works on any handset that receives SMS, including a phone with no smartphone features at all, and it needs no data connection to deliver. Someone who does not want another login, another icon, or another set of notification permissions still gets the full product.

Who is Pijnhol not for?

It is not for someone who wants general news coverage. Pijnhol only ever tells you about subjects you have named yourself, so it will not tell you about a major story elsewhere in the world, and it is not a substitute for a news outlet, a front page or a wire service.

It is also the wrong product if you want a guaranteed daily arrival — a quiet week for your subject means a quiet week of messages, by design; if you want to read full articles inside the product, because every message links out to the publisher and Pijnhol hosts no article content of its own; if you want a permanent free tier, because there is a free trial but no free plan; or if your number is not in Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Romania, Pakistan, Brunei, and Laos.

If you follow dozens of subjects loosely rather than a few closely, an RSS reader or a news aggregator will serve you better and cost nothing. Pijnhol is deliberately narrow.

How do I get news sent to me by text message?

Choose the people, teams, shows or topics you want to follow, then verify your mobile number with a six-digit code. In the United States and Canada, you can separately opt in to news alerts at signup or later from your dashboard.

There are three steps and no download. Verification takes one code message. Building a watch-list takes a minute — you type your subject in your own words, as specifically as you like, and then narrow it with sub-topics. Your first alert arrives when a qualifying story is found; quiet topics can take longer.

Nothing else is required of you afterwards. There is no profile to complete, no preferences to train, and no need to open the website again — the account page exists for changing your topics, your number or your plan, and for nothing else.

Can I get breaking news alerts by SMS for just one topic?

Yes: Pijnhol is a text message news alert service, so you can follow a single person, sports team, company, show or topic and get an SMS only when there is news about it.

There is no general news feed to switch off first. If the only thing you follow is one football club or one court case, the only texts you receive are about that club or that case.

What does a message actually look like?

Each message contains one or two short, AI-written sentences about a single story, followed by a direct link to the original source article. One text covers one story, so nothing is bundled into a digest you have to read through.

Messages are plain SMS, so they arrive in the same thread as everything else on your phone and work on any handset — iPhone, Android, or otherwise. There is no formatting, no images, and no click-tracking redirect on alert links.

The message is a summary, not the article. It exists to tell you whether this is worth your attention in the two seconds you spend looking at a lock screen; the link is there for when the answer is yes. Nothing is paywalled by Pijnhol itself, though the publisher on the other end of the link may have its own paywall.

Where do the stories come from?

Stories come from public news sources on the open web — publisher websites and news feeds — which Pijnhol searches continuously for the subjects on your watch-list. Every message links to the publisher that ran the story, and you read it there.

You can also add news sites of your own: Standard up to 2, Premium up to 10. Pijnhol reads each site's public feed and texts you only when a new post is about a topic you already follow. A story found only through a site you added goes only to the people who added that site.

Pijnhol is not a publisher and writes no journalism. It does not host, republish or reword article content beyond the short summary in the text, and it has no relationship with, and no payment from, the outlets it links to.

The summary is generated by a language model from the source article. That means it can occasionally be wrong or miss nuance, which is exactly why the link is in every message rather than only in some of them — the source is always one tap away, and it is the authority, not the text.

How often will it text me?

Only when there is news. Standard is capped at 4 texts a day and Premium at 12, and those are ceilings rather than targets — most days come in well under them, and a quiet day means nothing happened.

No single subject can produce more than 3 texts in a rolling day, however much of your daily allowance is unused. So a topic having an extraordinary week cannot spend your whole budget on itself and crowd out everything else you follow.

Messages are only sent between 7am and 10pm in your own timezone, so a story breaking overnight waits until morning rather than waking you. Premium subscribers can lower the daily ceiling themselves with a slider, and anyone can pause sending entirely from their dashboard.

You are never sent the same story twice. Each story is recorded against your account by its source URL once it has been sent, so the same article resurfacing in a different feed, or under a rewritten headline, does not produce a second text.

What can I follow?

Topics, gone deep. Pick a subject — a person, a team, a company, a court case, an election — then narrow it with up to 10 sub-topics so you only hear about the parts you care about.

Sub-topics are how the product gets precise. "Manchester United" on its own is a firehose; "Manchester United" narrowed to transfers and injuries is a handful of texts a week about the two things you actually wanted. The same applies to a company narrowed to product launches and executive changes, or a court case narrowed to rulings and sentencing.

Standard covers up to 2 topics; Premium covers up to 6, each with its own sub-topics. You can change your topic and sub-topics whenever you like from the dashboard, and the change takes effect on the next search rather than at the end of a billing period.

What happens on a day when nothing happens?

You get nothing, and that is the intended behaviour rather than a fault. Pijnhol has no scheduled send, so there is no daily message that has to be filled with something — if there is no news for your subjects, your phone stays quiet.

If you would rather hear something on a quiet stretch, you can opt in to trending stories from the last step of signup or from your dashboard. After a few quiet days in a row, Pijnhol then sends one story that has been going to other subscribers, marked as trending, in place of the quiet-day note. It is off unless you turn it on.

This is the main way the product differs from a newsletter or a digest, and it is worth being clear-eyed about the trade: a week of silence is normal for a narrow subject, and if silence would make you assume the service is broken, this is probably not the right product for you. You can always confirm it is working from your dashboard, which shows what has been sent and when.

What if a message is wrong, or about something I did not want?

Open the link. The source article is the authority, and it is in every message precisely so a summary can be checked in one tap rather than taken on trust.

If a message was about the wrong thing rather than merely wrong, the fix is usually the sub-topics: narrowing a topic is what stops loosely related stories from qualifying. You can edit them from your dashboard at any time and the next search uses the new list.

If something is genuinely off — a mis-summarised story, a subject matched to the wrong person of the same name — there is a feedback link on the website and support at support@pijnhol.com. Reports of this kind are read by a person, not routed into a queue.

What does it cost?

The pricing page shows the monthly price for your location, and checkout confirms the exact amount and currency before payment. The free trial starts when you create your account and covers 5 real alerts or 7 days, whichever comes first, even if you have not opted in to alerts yet.

You only enter payment details if you decide to continue past the trial, and you can cancel from the dashboard at any time. Cancelling leaves your access running to the end of the period you have already paid for, and there is no further charge after that. Full detail is on the pricing page.

Receiving a text is free to you on effectively every Australian plan, but standard message rates from your carrier may apply, and Pijnhol has no control over those.

Is there an app to download?

No. Pijnhol deliberately has no app — the entire product is delivered as text messages, and the website exists only to sign up and manage your account.

That is the point of it rather than a limitation: there is no icon on your home screen, no notification badge, and no feed designed to keep you scrolling. If you never visit the website again after signing up, the product still works.

It also means the product works on a phone that cannot run apps at all, and keeps working with no data connection, in a dead spot, or on a handset with everything else switched off.

Can I change my number, my topics or my plan later?

Yes to all three, from the dashboard, without contacting support. Changing your mobile number sends a fresh six-digit code; for a number in the United States or Canada, you must also opt in to news alerts before they resume.

Topics and sub-topics can be edited at any time and apply from the next search. Switching between Standard and Premium, or cancelling, is handled through the billing portal on the same page.

One thing is not currently self-service: the timezone used for quiet hours is recorded from your browser when you sign up and cannot yet be edited from the dashboard. Email support@pijnhol.com if it is wrong or if you move.

What happens when I travel, or while I am asleep?

Quiet hours are enforced against the timezone stored on your account, so between 10pm and 7am nothing is delivered and overnight news waits for the morning.

Because that timezone is the one recorded at signup, it does not follow you overseas — travel to another timezone and the quiet window stays anchored to home until support changes it. If you would rather have silence than an inconveniently timed text while you are away, the pause switch in the dashboard stops sending entirely and resumes when you turn it back on.

Nothing queued during quiet hours is lost or stockpiled into a pile: stale stories are dropped rather than delivered late, so you are not handed yesterday's news at breakfast.

How do I stop the messages or delete my account?

Reply STOP to any message to stop the texts. You can also pause sending, opt out, or permanently delete your account and its data from your dashboard, without contacting support.

Deletion removes your number, watch-list and message history, and cancels any active subscription. A minimal audit entry recording the deletion may remain.

The three controls are deliberately different: pause is reversible and keeps your subscription and topics; opting out stops messages while leaving the account in place; deletion is permanent and cannot be undone by support.

What does Pijnhol do with my phone number?

It is used to deliver your messages and to sign you in, and it is not sold, rented or shared for marketing. Pijnhol is the only sender you hear from on it.

Message content is generated from public news sources, not from anything about you, and there is no advertising in the product and no advertiser with access to your watch-list. The full statement is on the privacy page.

Where does it work?

Pijnhol currently serves mobile numbers in Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Romania, Pakistan, Brunei, and Laos. Standard message rates from your carrier may apply.

It is operated by Pijnhol (ABN 91 206 800 518), a sole trader based in Australia. Support is at support@pijnhol.com. The name is pronounced "pigeonhole".

The subjects you follow do not have to be from a country we serve — you can follow a foreign club, company, or election perfectly well — but the number receiving the texts must be in a currently supported country.

A small number of niche topics aren't available to every supported country due to local carrier rules. Every other topic works the same everywhere Pijnhol operates.