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Can non-Twitter users follow by SMS?
Do people have to be Twitter users to follow tweets by SMS?
Can they (US based) text "follow (USERNAME)" to 404040? Is that possible? I'm confused by this... thanks for the help!
Can they (US based) text "follow (USERNAME)" to 404040? Is that possible? I'm confused by this... thanks for the help!
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To elaborate a little further -- when someone sends a message to Twitter for the first time via sms, Twitter will see that their phone number is new and will reply to ask for their name.
So if your friend sends 'follow andy' (assuming andy is your username), they'll get a reply back asking for their name. After they reply with their name, Twitter creates a mobile-only account for them, and they'll start receiving your updates. ( It's a mobile-only account because -- although they have a Twitter user id, they haven't yet specified a password that they can use to login to Twitter via the web. )
When you go to your http://twitter.com/followers list, you'll see that your friend's newly created account has been added.
Note: If your friends later wish to start using Twitter from the website, they'll need to use the Account Completion form at http://twitter.com/account/complete to make sure that the Twitter web account they create isn't a new account but instead is linked to their existing mobile-only account
If they go to Twitter's website and just sign up for a new account, they'll end up with two separate accounts.
3 people say
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?hi @andy,
Yes, you have to first sign up with Twitter yourself (and setup your own phone via Twitter.com -> Setting page) and then you can begin to follow others. -
Inappropriate?I have signed up with Twitter and set up my own phone already. I am not interested in following others... but what I am interested in is other people following me via SMS without having to sign up for Twitter themselves. I just need to get large group SMS messages out a few times a week, and thought Twitter would be perfect, but it isn't exactly easy for a non-tech savvy user to sign up. I work with a lot of high schoolers (who text a lot, but don't ever check email or get on the computer). This is why it would be great if they could just follow me by texting 40404 something and then that's it. Is that possible? -
Inappropriate?Yes - if they text "follow yourusername" (without the quotes) to 40404 they'll start getting your updates.
2 people say
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?To elaborate a little further -- when someone sends a message to Twitter for the first time via sms, Twitter will see that their phone number is new and will reply to ask for their name.
So if your friend sends 'follow andy' (assuming andy is your username), they'll get a reply back asking for their name. After they reply with their name, Twitter creates a mobile-only account for them, and they'll start receiving your updates. ( It's a mobile-only account because -- although they have a Twitter user id, they haven't yet specified a password that they can use to login to Twitter via the web. )
When you go to your http://twitter.com/followers list, you'll see that your friend's newly created account has been added.
Note: If your friends later wish to start using Twitter from the website, they'll need to use the Account Completion form at http://twitter.com/account/complete to make sure that the Twitter web account they create isn't a new account but instead is linked to their existing mobile-only account
If they go to Twitter's website and just sign up for a new account, they'll end up with two separate accounts.
3 people say
this answers the question
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This answers the question
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@mdy - cool, thanks for this info :-)
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