The original service, tweet via text feature has been winded off by Twitter with no confirmation if it’s a temporary or permanent decision. Discarding the feature had been announced by the tech giant that shocked a lot of users all around the world.
There are many users including (personal & professionals) who often use the feature to interact with the dear ones or keep the business running. One of the catches is that the tweet via text feature isn’t going to be disabled for all the countries as there will be exceptions.
Tweet via Text Feature Shut Down by Twitter
Started in 2010, Twitter initiated the SMS feature service because of the internet not being a very big thing those days. Last year, the company has disabled the Compose text feature after the incident of CEO Jack Dorsey’s account hacking.
We’re aware that @jack was compromised and investigating what happened.
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) August 30, 2019
However, later on the account had been secured by taking proper precautions. The company took it to Twitter & posted about the account being secured at that moment.
The account is now secure, and there is no indication that Twitter’s systems have been compromised.
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) August 30, 2019
On April 27th, Twitter announced that the tweet-to-text-feature has been discarded due to some vulnerabilities that’s been found.
“We’ve now turned this feature back on for a few locations that depend on SMS to Tweet. It remains turned off for the rest of the world. We want to continue to help keep your account safe. We’ve seen vulnerabilities with SMS, so we’ve turned off our Twitter via SMS service, except for a few countries. If you were using Twitter via SMS, we recommend logging in at twitter.com or downloading our mobile app to enjoy the full Twitter experience. Everyone will still have access to important SMS messages needed to log in to and manage their accounts.” Twitter posted a blog about this.
We want to continue to help keep your account safe. We’ve seen vulnerabilities with SMS, so we’ve turned off our Twitter via SMS service, except for a few countries.
Everyone will still have access to important SMS messages needed to log in to and manage their accounts.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) April 27, 2020
The SMS-based delivery system found some vulnerability in the functionality that made the company take the decision of shutting it down once & for all.
Also Read: Attract More Followers on Twitter Using These Ways!
What All of This Means For Users?
The overall incident has made not using tweet via text feature anymore until further instructions. This means that now the users won’t be able to send or compose messages on Twitter by SMS sending service. It’s quite a shock because this was the base company that started in the first place. Additionally, users won’t be able to receive text notifications for the tweets so they will have to go to the profile & check it then & there only.
The company is also asking users to switch themselves from using text service to start getting the app itself.
Please find the app according to your device compatibility & download Twitter app.
Please know that the percentage of users who are used to off-tweet a text feature aren’t that many, however, it’s not about that. The decision is about keeping the user’s account safe & secure without any vulnerability.
Also, till now Twitter hasn’t given out the list of countries or regions the feature wouldn’t be working anymore. Because, it’s quite evident that the company won’t be disabling the feature all over the world.
Also Read: Fixes To Common Issues With Twitter Not Working
What’s Your Take on This?
The most important question is that, if Twitter wouldn’t be deactivating Tweet via text feature in a few countries, what is the security layer it’s offering to those regions? Will that security layer be enough to take care of the vulnerability Twitter found with the feature in the first place?
There are a lot of questions around this decision that are still unanswered & we look forward to getting more details from the company.
So don’t go anywhere & stay tuned to get more updates on this decision from Twitter about disabling tweet via text feature.
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