In a way, it is creepy as anyone knowing just your username will get to read your updates without even you getting to know about it! Anyone, we repeat, ANYONE can receive Twitter updates on their phones without signing up on Twitter. This feature is currently available only in U.S., India, Indonesia and Haiti. In India, Fast Follow feature is available for Airtel and Videocon mobile subscribers only. The short code for India is 53000.
Kick start to get updates by sending a SMS message - Follow [USERNAME] to 53000 and start receiving updates from that particular user. Do note that you must know the particular username, like Techtree, to start getting updates.
For example, Airtel and Videocon mobile subscribers can send an SMS with text - Follow Techtree to short code number 53000. And then, they would receive Techtree's Twitter updates via SMS.
Here's a basic list of command for users to start receiving twitter updates on their phones:
- Follow [username] - To receive updates from a user send Follow along with the username to 40404
- OFF or STOP or LEAVE- You can turn off receiving updates from the user that you are following by sending OFF or STOP
- ON - Sending ON will turn on device updates and you will start receiving tweets again.
- WHOIS username - Retrieves the profile information of the user.
- STATS - This command returns the number of people that you are following.
- GET username - This retrieves the latest update that the user has posted.
For a comprehensive list of commands, visit this page.
Do note that there's no way to stop following a user or block them via SMS. You'll have to visit that user's profile on the web interface to stop following them. Using ON/OFF commands in SMS will only stop the notifications being sent out to your phone.
Now if you, as a Twitter user, don't want any random people to follow you, then you'll have to protect your updates by setting a privacy filter from Twitter account settings. Go to the Settings link on the top of the page and on the Account tab scroll down to check the box next to Tweet Privacy. Once you've protected your Tweets, only users you approve can follow you and get to read your Twitter updates - be it for the mobile notifications or on the web.
Visit this link to register the phone number to sign up for Twitter.
The new Fast Follow feature for selected countries is an effort to bring aboard more Twitter users via mobile phones. Even though whatever is being sent out as Twitter updates is available and accessible openly on the web, the privacy of existing users is at stake and an average user won't be able to figure out if someone is already receiving his/her updates via mobile phone. What do you think about this new feature? Leave us a comment and let us know
