Orange today announced a partnership with Twitter, which will enable customers to send and receive Twitter updates directly from their mobile phones using text messaging. It also sees Orange become the first mobile phone operator to enable customers to upload and share photos on Twitter via MMS.
The partnership has been designed to give Orange customers fast and simple access to Twitter without the need to download special software or pay extra for services. Customers will be able to update their own ’tweets’, send direct messages to other Twitter users and receive alerts on Twitter activity all through text messaging. Twitter alerts will be available free, with upload text messages either included in customers’ bundles or charged at the usual rate.
Orange customers will have full control over Twitter alerts sent to their mobile phones with customers able to choose to receive text message updates on ‘tweets’ from all people they follow, individual users or direct messages. They’ll also be able to set times for receiving ‘tweets’.
So far, so good you might think – but it actually gets better (and more interesting):
Orange has also become the first mobile phone operator to enable customers to upload and share photos on Twitter via MMS. The Orange service enables customers to post their photos on ‘Snapshot’, a site developed by Orange UK, which automatically posts the link directly to Twitter in a ‘tweet’ and allow followers to add comments.
Finally, Twitter will also join Facebook, MySpace and Bebo on Social Life, a mobile social networking aggregator created by Orange which brings together social networking activity in one central place. Accessible from Orange World, Orange’s mobile internet portal, Social Life allows customers to view and post updates and get in touch with friends and family across all four social networks at the same time through a single log-in.
So in summary then, Orange has gone large on its partnership with Twitter – but the most interesting thing, from my perspective, is the MMS capability – Twitter strikes me as something that has been crying out for an MMS integration, so it’s good to see it happening. I don’t imagine for a second Orange will be the first and last Operator to do this, watch the floodgates open now!
To find out more about the service, Orange mobile users should visit Orange World from their mobile handset.