Tweeting from your phone

One of the cool things about using Twitter in a class setting is that it allows you to continue the discussion outside the classroom.  For people whose phones have Twitter apps or web access this is pretty easy but you may not have realized that you can also use a regular cell phone to submit and read tweets.

Twitter has an FAQ on phones and also a Getting Started Guide for Twitter via SMS.

In a nutshell here's how you register your phone to your Twitter account and start tweeting via SMS:

1. Text the word START to 40404.
2. Wait for a reply text from Twitter.
3. Reply to that with your username. Do not use @ or quotes. Send your username ONLY.
4. Wait for another reply text.
5. Reply to that with your password. This is case sensitive, so be sure you are sending your password correctly (many phones will try to capitalize the first letter).
6. Wait for the reply text.
7. Reply to that with the word HELLO.

To test if you have correctly added your phone, send a "test" Tweet to 40404 and check online to see if it shows up on your Twitter profile.  If it worked you are ready to tweet whenever you want by texting 40404.

Once you have done this be sure to check out your SMS settings via the Settings --> Mobile link on your Twitter profile.  You may want to turn off some of the notifications for replies, mentions, favorites, etc.

To follow someone's tweets via SMS you need to turn mobile notifications on for that person on your profile's Following page.  Mobile notification for tweeters you are following is not turned on by default.