Twitter Launches Text-Based ‘Fast Follow’

Twitter on Wednesday introduced a “quick follow” option that will let people receive Twitter updates from specific users without making an account of their own.

If someone who is not on Twitter, for example, wanted to receive updates from my Twitter feed, they could send a text message to 40404 with [follow ChloeAlbanesius] in the body of the text message. Twitter will then text that person with my future tweets.

Twitter said the feature will make it simple for people to get quick updates from people or companies they hear about on-the-go.

“Try it out the next time you see a Twitter @username at a restaurant or store, on a billboard or on TV, or if you hear one mentioned on the radio,” Twitter’s Leland Rechis wrote in a blog post.

To appear on someone’s followers list, you’ll have to make an account.

Quick follow is currently only available in the U.S., but Twitter is working on bringing it to other countries, Rechis said.

Another way to sign up to receive tweets via text is to click the mobile phone icon at the top of a Twitter user’s page. Next to the “Follow” or “Following” button is a photo of a cell phone. Click it and you’ll get a text message every time they tweet.

If you just want someone’s most recent tweet, text [Get ChloeAlbanesius], and Twitter will send the latest update. To take a break from text-based tweets, text [off] to 40404 and [on] to turn them back on. That works with specific user names as well, by texting [on ChloeAlbanesius] or [off ChloeAlbanesius], for example.

In other Twitter news, Mashable reported that Twitter will soon launch an official “Tweet” button that Web site owners can embed in their Web sites. Clicking it will send that tale to your Twitter feed, and a counter will track how many times it has been tweeted.

Many sites already have a “retweet” button, which does the same thing, but that is produced by Tweetmeme; this would be directly from Twitter.

When questioned about the feature, a Twitter spokeswoman said to “stay tuned.”