“Did you get my tweet?” This is the new lingo among people working on social networking site ‘Twitter’, especially with their mobile phone. Read on to explore how does ‘Twitter’ work on a cell phone.

How Does Twitter Work On Cell Phone

Last year there was major excitement when popular actor, Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to an online popularity contest through the social media site, Twitter. He did manage to get a fan following of over 1 million making him more popular than a huge, media company like CNN. This proved the power of online networking and how information can be shared to millions anywhere in the world. Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking site where users can type in messages within 140 characters about anything under the sun. Updates are sent as ‘tweets’ either through the website, cell phone, instant messaging or other third party programs. Messages or updates can be anything from details about personal lives to gossip to political events; it’s the new information age of free expression. Until now registration on Twitter is free, although if you are using it through your cell phone you may have to pay your cell phone service company provider. With rapid development of mobile technology and affordable product ranges, people have upgraded their cell phone versions and regularly use it as a smart multitasking device. Now they find the need to send tweets when on vacation, traveling, sporting or almost anytime, anywhere. People use Twitter to promote their businesses and celebrities are using it to promote the charity funds they support to increase donations. Twitter was initially conceptualized with the purpose of receiving breaking news feeds. 
 
How Does Twitter Work On Mobile Phone 
  • Twitter was initially designed to work on the Short Instant Message (SMS) protocol. SMS allows sending and receiving of messages from phone to phone or other services like websites, e-mail servers, etc.
  • When a message is sent from a phone it is transmitted to a mobile switching center (MSC) through which a signal is sent to a signal transfer point (STP).
  • From the transfer point the message is sent to the short message service center (SMSC) and finally to Twitter.
  • Twitter in turn transmits the message to the people in your network through the same process in the reversed order.
  • Twitter uses the SMS protocol and is therefore limited by its restrictions. The tweets just like messaging is restricted to 160 characters and can include only text.
  • This restriction is in fact more beneficial as it is the most widely supported protocol by cell phone service providers and therefore Twitter is able to have a large user base.
  • Even if you use a desktop computer or post a tweet through a web based program, Twitter will send the message through a SMS to people on your network who have their cell phones listed.
  • For other users in your network who do not have their phones registered a message will appear online in their account. 

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