For a long time, it looked like Twitter and SMS were destined for a slow and painful breakup. While the functionality was originally a user favorite, as Twitter exploded in size, it looked like it would become too expensive to maintain. Twitter shut down SMS in several countries (in fact, all of them besides the U.S. and India). But even since Kevin Thau, Twitter’s head of mobile products and partnerships, came on board in January, SMS has seen a resurgence. And today it looks like Twitter is ready to emphasize the service again.
Now, on the profile for any Twitter user you follow, you will notice a little mobile phone icon surrounded by a circle. If the circle is clear, SMS updates for that user is off. If there is a green background, SMS updates are on. You can also hover over the icon to see if they are on or off. Clicking on the icon will turn them on or off. On your Following page, you will also see this same icon under the “Settings” column that you can toggle on and off.
Both of these tweaks provide a much more obvious way of handing SMS alerts. And it makes them much easier to switch on and off. Previously, there was no way to control this on individual profiles and you had to drill down into your followers to toggle them on and off.
Maintaining and expanding SMS support is important for Twitter is other parts of the world, where it remains a simple and effective way to communicate with the service. SMS remains a colossal rip-off for what it is, but in some areas, people who want to use Twitter may not really have many other options, as not all countries have affordable iPhones with data plans.
The next step will be for Twitter to turn on SMS track functionality, which will allow you to get pinged every time a certain keyword is mentioned on Twitter. But hey, one step at a time.
Note: If you aren’t seeing SMS updates working, make sure you check your Settings -> Devices area. Here, you should see your mobile phone number and in the Device Updates drop down, this should be set to “On” if you want to see updates. This is the place that you can also set Twitter to only send you text messages when you get direct messages.
Also, be careful. When I turned on Twitter notifications for the first time in a while, I was bombarded by text message tweets from hundreds of users I didn’t even realize I had turn the feature on for (not only is this annoying, but again, it’s a rip-off depending on your messaging plan).
The functionality still needs some UX tweaks — where’s the “set all to off” button? — otherwise it’s simply easier to keep them all off rather than going through each one to make sure they’re off.
“Clicking on the icon will turn them on or off.”
Clarification: You can only turn on / off your own SMS setting and not someone else, right?
On another note: I think it would be better if Twitter would just create push technology for tweets. Makes things a lot easier for everyone
well, yes, you can only turn alerts from that user on or off to your phone.
i see, so it’s for tweets you receive. thanks for the clearing.
thanks .. I had the same doubt ..
Best,
Daina
The problem I have with SMS is that I don’t have unlimited text messaging for out of network (which twitter would be counted as) I use most of my 500/mo limit (thanks verizon…) sending twitpics and the ocasional txt based update to twitter. I’d end up paying out the bum if i had updates coming to my phone too.
thats the whole point. i bet twitter gets a kickback from your phone company
and the ONLY Biz Model for Biz Stone
That’s a nice feature. I still think that Twitter needs to improve its basic messaging capabilities though.
For example Whispurr.com (still in early stage) allows you to “tweet” in a many-to-many or threaded way.
Why can’t twitter first improve basics first??
@Gerry – you turn on/off notifications for every user that you follow, who you want to be notified when THEY tweet (AKA push technology for tweets).
140 chars for a reason. 20 chars for ads although there’s only so much you can do with 20 chars.
either way, good to see twitter go back to their roots. adoption will be stronger now that more folks are buying unlimited SMS plans.
Character limit is set by the device and not all of them support 160 chars. Also the 20 char SMS Ads is not at all a revenue generating model according to me. The explanation is here – http://wp.me/pw0hs-3x
>On your Following page, you will also see this same icon under the “Settings” column that you can toggle on and off.
fantastic! I had the same problem recently where I turned on notifications and was bombarded!
I think this site should be called twittercrunch. Something like seven of the blog posts on the front page right now all have something to do with Twitter. I guess your analytics tell you that topic gets clicks, but please, give it a break. I enjoy your site, but this is a real turnoff.
I thought we all stopped caring about Twitter when ppl realized their biggest “play” was joining hands with a dying cesspool of a social network.
Isn’t Twitter all about getting an SMS text message about what your friends are doing right now?
I gotta question the relevance of this feature. With so many great clients for the mobile platform with Push capabilities already, what the hell is the point of filling up your text mailbox with more rubbish? Why dedicate resources to reinventing the wheel you’ve already reinvented? Y not throw those resources behind trying not to crash every other day when Brittany Spears douches?
because not everyone has a fancy phone like your own…
you could turn off mobile updates previously in the user profile by clicking on the following image. A new area would appear and gave you the choice for mobile on/off.
I like the new icon though, it makes it obvious if you are going to receive that person’s tweets on your phone, however the functionality of typing in “follow username” that automatically assigns that person’s update to your mobile phone is irritating. maybe they should default that to off and let you do a “follow username on/off” command.
Correct, this is a minor UI change really, this feature used to be available in the same place as now. http://s3.amazo...581442png_large
Now if only they would get rid of the 1,000 SMS per day limit. Some of us actually like to use only SMS.
Oh, and bring back Track.
I had an issue for the first time with the 1000 SMS limit today. It sent me a message. I have never received 1,000 tweets in one day on my phone. how is that possible?
i was going to say that im shocked they didnt use sms as a way to at least partially monetise their sight, a little bit, slightly.
but then i thought about it some more, and i cant believe many people actually would bother to update twitter via sms. i mean wouldnt anyone with a smartphone, just update their status via the twitter website or via an iphone app ( i dont have an iphone so im just assuming it has one)
that would be site, not sight.
and to get twitter updates as well as send them.
Even though I have a BlackBerry with a data plan, I still sometimes use SMS to send tweets. SMS works a bit more reliably in places with spotty data coverage (like the subway).
My main problem is that my favorite people on Twitter tweet far too much to make SMS a palatable delivery option.
It can be difficult to believe for someone so obsessed with twitter and his iphone, but there is people out there who don’t use twitter through an iphone, even if it is available in the country…
In most countries outside the US&Canada we don’t pay to receive sms or calls on our mobile phones. But we pay more to call or send an sms, what makes it too expensive to set up services like this one through sms.
cool another Twitter story about twitter SMS… Breaking news, thats how twitter started…
“SMS remains a colossal rip-off for what it is”…
This is true in the US where mobile tech in general has trailed the world. Till date sending SMS to US customers from outside, is a spray and pray exercise.
SMS is a cheap, highly effective and lucrative revenue source in Europe and Asia and is very cost-effective from the consumer viewpoint.
SMS alerts are a great revenue source to middle players like Twitter, while costing the consumer nothing (again outside the US).
Just as Apple has not a clue on how to price that contraption of theirs outside the states, the US telcos seem lost in the 80s when it comes to using SMS. For starts, stop making it difficult and calling it “text messaging”. Morons!
Totally agree. Also more than end-consumers, adding SMS capability makes business sense for start-ups only if they generate huge volumes. Unless twitter has negotiated a better contract (which I am sure they would have), not sure how they will pay up. In one way wireless operators here stifle innovation – http://wp.me/pw0hs-3x
here in Belgium we do not have the option:
“on the profile for any Twitter user you follow, you will notice a little mobile phone icon surrounded by a circle. ”
:-/
The “how many times does twitter appear on Techcrunch” is almost on a all time high
http://www.howm...techcrunch.com/
It’s hard for me to fathom that in some countries people have to pay for _receiving_ SMSs (and calls). It’s just absurd.
Sigh! Twitter beat me to this by one day!!! Sort of.
My site (http://twxlate.com), after you have signed in, now also displays a device icon when a user is displayed in the list of those you are following, indicating whether or not you will receive device updates from that user.
But it also does this in ANY list that includes users: timelines, those that follow you, those that you block, favorites, DMs, etc.
And it also displays icons that indicate whether that user is following you and / or you are following them and / or you have blocked them from following you.
And it can display a list of those users from whom you are receiving device updates and to whom you have any “relationship” at all (following, followed by, blocking, receiving notifications).
So this is quite a bit more than twitter.com.
Ya can’t yet change those relationships, but that will be coming in a few days.
Oh, did I mention that the site supports over 40 languages for its user interface, not just English and Japanese? And when a tweet or DM is displayed that is in a language other than the UI language, it is translated to and displayed in the UI language, if possible?
Ya can’t yet create tweets or DMs, but that too is coming soon. And, of course, you’ll be able to translate them to the language of your choice as you create them.
Does Twitter actually append ads to their SMS alerts?
Not that I’ve seen.
Twitter did have a means to turn on/off the SMS messaging service on the individuals profile from Nov. 2007 (when I joined) until several months ago.
Glad to see the on/off feature has been re-instated.
Sorry MG, But I have been seeing that mobile icon from a long time now.