Too many tweets on your cell phone? Silence them.

Okay, so you got all excited, signed up for Twitter, and now you're inundated with tweet text messages.  You like all the info (hopefully you're not following the pointless babblers), but it's blowing up your cell phone with text messages every minute. What to do? No worries, you've got great options. First we'll cover what you need to do to get rid of the text messages, and then we'll talk about the other ways you can view the tweets. That's the cool part about Twitter, you're in full control.

• Silence a specifc Tweeter - Go to the Twitter page of the tweeter you want to silence and click on the "Device Updates ON" link near the top of the page on the left next to the "Following" link. Then click on the "Off" button under "Device Updates." In this case the "device" is your cell phone, and you'll no longer receive tweet text messages from this person/account.

• Disable Twitter text messaging - If you don't want to receive tweet text messages from anyone, you need to click on the "Settings" link at the top right of your twitter page. Then click on the "Devices" link in the gray navigation bar. Next click on the arrow for the drop down box for "Device Updates" and select "Off." Finally, click the "Save" button next to "Device Updates." Now you won't receive text message tweets from anyone because you have disabled the text messaging feature.

• Disable Twitter text messaging during certain times - Twitter gives you the ability to turn off text messaging between set hours every day. Click on the "Settings" link at the top right of your twitter page. Then click on the "Devices" link in the navigation bar. Next click in the box to "Turn off updates during these hours." Select the appropriate "from - to" times and click "Save."

 
Now that you've silenced a few folks (or everyone), you'll have to remember to check for their tweets other ways...

• Online through Twitter- click the "Home" link at the top of your Twitter page on the right. Here's where you'll find all of the tweets from the people you follow. Be sure to bookmark your Twitter page. If you go this route and you use Firefox for your web browser, you can also download twitterfox. It's a nice little app that adds a tiny icon on the status bar which notifies you when your friends update their tweets.

• Online through desktop applications - there are some very cool free downloadable desktop applications ("clients" as they're known) like seesmic and tweetdeck, which give you all kinds of flexibility in viewing, receiving, sending, grouping and organizing your tweets. If you've gotten carried away like I have, you'll love them. You can sort, filter and group your tweets a million ways. My favorite is seesmic because it uses a left side navigation bar that lists all of your accounts and filters. Although, tweetdeck has a companion app for the iphone. Seesmic's iphone app is under development and will be released shortly.

• On your cell phone - if you have an iphone or other smartphone, you can download several free applications like tweetie, twitterfon, twitterrific and tweetdeck.  They have very simple user-friendly interfaces which allow you to receive, view and send tweets like your online Twitter page does...actually better. There are also other Twitter apps for Blackberry that do the same thing. If your cell phone doesn’t have a downloadable Twitter app, you can try Twitter's mobile version from your cell phone's Web browser at "m.twitter.com."

If you want to "follow me," my username is "michaeldef." You'll get a mix of Bay Area special events, inside scoop, a few hookups, and some op ed here and there on social issues and life's dilemmas. Follow "viplineup" for top pick Bay Area lifestyle and entertainment listings of cultural, food, fashion, music, dining and charitable events.

-- Tweet tweet...

Twitter Resources

• Too many tweets on your cell phone? Silence them.
• Twitter FAQs
• The Twitter Guide Book
• Mashable, ultimate social media guide
• What makes a quality tweet?

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Comments

[Samantha Cole]

Twitter can be both fun and useful. Most of all, it's a convenient social media network. But for your cell phone, it can be overwhelming at times. A bit of organization helps make that phone of yours easier to use and smarter.

[Kristopher Gawron]

Great post! Twitter could be messy and irritating at times, especially when you're waiting for an important message on your mobile phone. But it is also a great way to be on the loop and stay connected.