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Tweets are asynchronous, unlike SMS and IM. I can read them when I want. I don't have to be running the client at the time they are sent. And they don't get sp

Tweets are asynchronous, unlike SMS and IM. I can read them when I want. I don't have to be running the client at the time they are sent. And they don't get spam filtered, nor do I get phishing Tweets from people pretending to be my hosting company. Remember all those harebrained schemes to charge companies tiny amounts of money for guaranteed-delivery emails with verified sender IDs? Twitter just deployed that system right under our noses.

deleted 18y ago
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- mechanical_fish 18y ago
  Oops! Let me amend my statement, then: Twitter is a stream separate from your SMS, so you have the option of treating those two streams separately. For example, I treat SMS like a sort of semi-synchronous channel: I leave my SMS alerts on so that my phone beeps whenever I receive one, and then I reserve that channel for my friends and family. Sorry, I'm not much of an SMS user, so I lack sophistication with it. And I sometimes forget that my personal quirks are not generally applicable. While I'm correcting myself, let me note that sending an SMS costs money. That money may add up if you're blasting SMS messages to 10k customers at once. Of course, we're discussing the possibility that Twitter may end up costing money too, but perhaps it will still be cheaper.
Angostura 18y ago
In what way are you required to read an SMS the moment that it arrives?
- lehmannro 18y ago
  You can refuse to read messages in any medium after all. For SMS, though, the reader (often a mobile phone device) has to read the message the moment it arrives (or it, well, won't arrive). Since tweets are not limited to one person, reading Twitter can happen asynchronously.
  - notauser 18y ago
    Unless the American carriers have managed to screw up one more technology (which is entirely possible) SMS is asynchronous. When you turn the device on it receives all the messages queued in the network. If your device is off when your network gets an incoming SMS, the store-and-forward system just holds it until it can be delivered. This is exactly the same behaviour as Twitter or indeed e-mail. My carrier can send SMS to multiple devices, or I can pick them up via a web portal, or via e-mail.
axod 18y ago
"And they don't get spam filtered, nor do I get phishing Tweets from people pretending to be my hosting company." ...yet.

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mechanical_fish 18y ago
Oops! Let me amend my statement, then: Twitter is a stream separate from your SMS, so you have the option of treating those two streams separately. For example, I treat SMS like a sort of semi-synchronous channel: I leave my SMS alerts on so that my phone beeps whenever I receive one, and then I reserve that channel for my friends and family. Sorry, I'm not much of an SMS user, so I lack sophistication with it. And I sometimes forget that my personal quirks are not generally applicable. While I'm correcting myself, let me note that sending an SMS costs money. That money may add up if you're blasting SMS messages to 10k customers at once. Of course, we're discussing the possibility that Twitter may end up costing money too, but perhaps it will still be cheaper.

Angostura 18y ago

In what way are you required to read an SMS the moment that it arrives?

lehmannro 18y ago
You can refuse to read messages in any medium after all. For SMS, though, the reader (often a mobile phone device) has to read the message the moment it arrives (or it, well, won't arrive). Since tweets are not limited to one person, reading Twitter can happen asynchronously.
- notauser 18y ago
  Unless the American carriers have managed to screw up one more technology (which is entirely possible) SMS is asynchronous. When you turn the device on it receives all the messages queued in the network. If your device is off when your network gets an incoming SMS, the store-and-forward system just holds it until it can be delivered. This is exactly the same behaviour as Twitter or indeed e-mail. My carrier can send SMS to multiple devices, or I can pick them up via a web portal, or via e-mail.

axod 18y ago

"And they don't get spam filtered, nor do I get phishing Tweets from people pretending to be my hosting company." ...yet.