cellphone notifications, see the preceding section.)
At first, receiving text-message updates from all your new Twitter friends is fun. But when your network grows, you may find all those tweets a bit noisy, to say the least — not to mention the fact that your cellphone plan may charge you for each text message you receive. To change this, look at Settings and then the tab called Devices. We give you more detail on what you can adjust, and how to do it, in Chapter 4 and Chapter 7.
Plenty of avid users of Twitter never even receive SMS updates; others swear by them. Part of the beauty of Twitter is the many different ways that you can access it. You always have a choice.
You can also set quiet time, which (in our opinion) is a very underrated feature. Basically, quiet time can ensure that your phone doesn’t wake you up in the middle of the night when tweets come in from the other side of the world.
To set up quiet time, follow these steps:
1. Click the Settings link on the top navigation bar.
The Settings page opens.
2. Select the Devices tab.
3. Select the check box labeled Turn Off Updates During These Hours.
4. In the drop-down menus directly below the check box, select the times between which you don’t want text messages to come into your phone.
5. Click Save.
Selecting your text notifications, person by person
If you start following hundreds of people, you probably don’t want to receive text-message tweets from all of them. Thankfully, Twitter lets you receive texts only from users of your choice so that your phone isn’t vibrating and beeping all day.
To turn off device notifications for some of the people you’re following, follow these steps:
1. Go to your following page ( www.twitter.com/friends ).
2. Next to each person that you follow, you have the option to turn their individual device updates On or Off by clicking one of the radio buttons.
3. If you can’t see the device updates On and Off options after each name on your following list, you don’t have device updates turned on for your account. Turn it on and you will be able to adjust each individual’s settings.
Chapter 3
Stroll Around the Grounds: A Tour of the Twitter Interface
In This Chapter
Reading the feed on your Twitter Home screen
Making a Twitter conversation personal by using @replies and direct messages
Marking your Twitter favorites
Viewing who you’re following and who’s following you
Reviewing your past Twitter updates
For the power it wields, Twitter is one of the simplest and, we think, most elegant Web sites for mass communication. The interface makes interacting with other people — some you already know and others you’ll meet — incredibly easy, and it cleanly organizes a lot of information.
As you use Twitter more and more, you may want to know where to locate things quickly and manage your communication flow more intelligently. In this chapter, we dive down into each Twitter page view, showing how it relates to the conversations going on around you and the conversations you’re having directly.
Starting Out on the Home Screen
When you first log into Twitter, the Home screen is your first stop. After you set up your account, you go to this screen to touch base with your followers and the people you’re following. On the Home screen, you can also see who’s talking to you directly through @replies, which are public tweets in response to individual users, and direct messages (DMs), which are private, one-to-one tweets. (For more on using @replies and DMs, see the sections “Tweeting to One Specific Person: @Replies” and “Shhh! Sending Private Notes via Direct Messages,” later in this chapter.)
Additionally, the controls along the top of the Home screen let you change your settings, update your profile background, upload your avatar, toggle your SMS notifications, and more. (Chapter 2 covers most of these setup features.)
The Home screen, shown in Figure 3-1, has a standard layout. The
At first, receiving text-message updates from all your new Twitter friends is fun. But when your network grows, you may find all those tweets a bit noisy, to say the least — not to mention the fact that your cellphone plan may charge you for each text message you receive. To change this, look at Settings and then the tab called Devices. We give you more detail on what you can adjust, and how to do it, in Chapter 4 and Chapter 7.
Plenty of avid users of Twitter never even receive SMS updates; others swear by them. Part of the beauty of Twitter is the many different ways that you can access it. You always have a choice.
You can also set quiet time, which (in our opinion) is a very underrated feature. Basically, quiet time can ensure that your phone doesn’t wake you up in the middle of the night when tweets come in from the other side of the world.
To set up quiet time, follow these steps:
1. Click the Settings link on the top navigation bar.
The Settings page opens.
2. Select the Devices tab.
3. Select the check box labeled Turn Off Updates During These Hours.
4. In the drop-down menus directly below the check box, select the times between which you don’t want text messages to come into your phone.
5. Click Save.
Selecting your text notifications, person by person
If you start following hundreds of people, you probably don’t want to receive text-message tweets from all of them. Thankfully, Twitter lets you receive texts only from users of your choice so that your phone isn’t vibrating and beeping all day.
To turn off device notifications for some of the people you’re following, follow these steps:
1. Go to your following page ( www.twitter.com/friends ).
2. Next to each person that you follow, you have the option to turn their individual device updates On or Off by clicking one of the radio buttons.
3. If you can’t see the device updates On and Off options after each name on your following list, you don’t have device updates turned on for your account. Turn it on and you will be able to adjust each individual’s settings.
Chapter 3
Stroll Around the Grounds: A Tour of the Twitter Interface
In This Chapter
Reading the feed on your Twitter Home screen
Making a Twitter conversation personal by using @replies and direct messages
Marking your Twitter favorites
Viewing who you’re following and who’s following you
Reviewing your past Twitter updates
For the power it wields, Twitter is one of the simplest and, we think, most elegant Web sites for mass communication. The interface makes interacting with other people — some you already know and others you’ll meet — incredibly easy, and it cleanly organizes a lot of information.
As you use Twitter more and more, you may want to know where to locate things quickly and manage your communication flow more intelligently. In this chapter, we dive down into each Twitter page view, showing how it relates to the conversations going on around you and the conversations you’re having directly.
Starting Out on the Home Screen
When you first log into Twitter, the Home screen is your first stop. After you set up your account, you go to this screen to touch base with your followers and the people you’re following. On the Home screen, you can also see who’s talking to you directly through @replies, which are public tweets in response to individual users, and direct messages (DMs), which are private, one-to-one tweets. (For more on using @replies and DMs, see the sections “Tweeting to One Specific Person: @Replies” and “Shhh! Sending Private Notes via Direct Messages,” later in this chapter.)
Additionally, the controls along the top of the Home screen let you change your settings, update your profile background, upload your avatar, toggle your SMS notifications, and more. (Chapter 2 covers most of these setup features.)
The Home screen, shown in Figure 3-1, has a standard layout. The
Similar Books
