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Twitter kills off SMS notifications and posting in most countries

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Re: Twitter kills off SMS notifications and posting in most countries

#21

Post by saagarjha »

pjc50 wrote: post #8
eigen-vector wrote: post #3

This is quite unfortunate. In countries where whether the people have access to internet or not is under the control of the government, this was a neat work around to get voices heard. In the recent history, an 'internet lockdown' has been the MO of many (oppressive) governments, including India. edit: removed a comment on about 2-FA as it takes away from the intended point.

I don't think there are any countries with government controlled internet that don't also have government controlled mobile networks, and SMS is sent in the clear?

They'd have to remember to shut down the SMS network.

Re: Twitter kills off SMS notifications and posting in most countries

#23

Post by epx »

mkchoi212 wrote: post #17

Author’s claims are valid. SMS is still relied upon in countries without stable internet connection. Twitter should use its resources to fix the vulnerabilities and not just kill it off. Seems like they are straying away from their mission of allowing everyone to create and share ideas without barriers.

Nowadays SMS take longer to deliver than WhatsApp. Have tried to use SMS being in very remote areas with bad cell coverage to tell my wife where I was, they never arrived. WhatsApp delivered as soon as I overcame a hill crest and there was a sliver of 3G signal.

Re: Twitter kills off SMS notifications and posting in most countries

#24

Post by Dunedan »

3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #13
meigwilym wrote: post #9

There's some irony in that Twitter have moved on from the 140 character limit, and now cutting off SMS. Both were core features of the platform when initially launched, so that it coupled nicely with mobile/cell phones (obviously in the pre smartphone era).

On the flip side, the experience is remarkably similar now to what it was a decade ago. It’s materially the same, which is rare for unicorns of this time.

For me, an occasional reader without a Twitter account, the experience became much worse in the past decade. That's because Twitter switched of RSS feeds and when opening links to individual tweets nowadays there is this ubiquitous "Something Went Wrong, Try Again" on first page load.

Re: Twitter kills off SMS notifications and posting in most countries

#25

Post by scandox »

seancoleman wrote: post #5

This reminds me of how I hacked twitter 10+ years ago to get free SMS delivery for a web app I built. Before Twilio, custom SMS notification delivery was hard and expensive. At the time, twitter allowed you to receive SMS notifications of tweets posted to a followed account. I created a private account and used twitter's API to post tweets to with the notification content I wanted to send. I then had "dummy" accounts…

I used Clickatell for years before Twilio and it really wasn't hard or mad expensive.

Re: Twitter kills off SMS notifications and posting in most countries

#26

Post by backtoyoujim »

3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #13
meigwilym wrote: post #9

There's some irony in that Twitter have moved on from the 140 character limit, and now cutting off SMS. Both were core features of the platform when initially launched, so that it coupled nicely with mobile/cell phones (obviously in the pre smartphone era).

On the flip side, the experience is remarkably similar now to what it was a decade ago. It’s materially the same, which is rare for unicorns of this time.

Materially in 2010 twitter was not the bullhorn of a political dictator.

Re: Twitter kills off SMS notifications and posting in most countries

#27

Post by eigen-vector »

joombaga wrote: post #10
eigen-vector wrote: post #3

This is quite unfortunate. In countries where whether the people have access to internet or not is under the control of the government, this was a neat work around to get voices heard. In the recent history, an 'internet lockdown' has been the MO of many (oppressive) governments, including India. edit: removed a comment on about 2-FA as it takes away from the intended point.

This wasn't about 2FA via SMS. That still works.

I intended it to be a comment on how security is a reason why this was purportedly removed and that I understand, but I see that I muddled my statements there.

Re: Twitter kills off SMS notifications and posting in most countries

#28

Post by flatTheCurve »

3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #13
meigwilym wrote: post #9

There's some irony in that Twitter have moved on from the 140 character limit, and now cutting off SMS. Both were core features of the platform when initially launched, so that it coupled nicely with mobile/cell phones (obviously in the pre smartphone era).

On the flip side, the experience is remarkably similar now to what it was a decade ago. It’s materially the same, which is rare for unicorns of this time.

Disagree. Before you could follow people.

Now you have an algorithm of forced political tweets.

Re: Twitter kills off SMS notifications and posting in most countries

#29

Post by gojomo »

meigwilym wrote: post #9

There's some irony in that Twitter have moved on from the 140 character limit, and now cutting off SMS. Both were core features of the platform when initially launched, so that it coupled nicely with mobile/cell phones (obviously in the pre smartphone era).

Similarly ironic: that Twitter essentially now requires a phone number for continued use of their service – by freezing all new users' accounts, soon after minor activity, until a phone number is provided. But, they won't let you use that phone endpoint for reading/posting.

Re: Twitter kills off SMS notifications and posting in most countries

#30

Post by zymhan »

flatTheCurve wrote: post #28
3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, the experience is remarkably similar now to what it was a decade ago. It’s materially the same, which is rare for unicorns of this time.

Disagree. Before you could follow people. Now you have an algorithm of forced political tweets.

You can follow people. But if the people you follow "like" a political post, then you might see that. You can also tell Twitter to "Show you less" of any kind of post.
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