Official Twitter Text Commands

June 8th, 2009 Posted by Missie at 6:19 pm

Official twitter text commands allow you to perform twitter actions like following or making direct messages using commands from your mobile, the update box on your twitter account or from any third party application. The commands are simple to use and can turn your tweets into that little something special that will help keep and build more followers.

Here’s some of our favourite official twitter commands.

Funtweets

These official twitter commands will help you send private messages, mark a tweet as a favourite or even nudge your favourite twitter friend.

• @username + message
directs a twitter at another person, and causes your twitter to save in their “replies” tab.
Example: @sugarpie I want icecream too!

• D username + message
sends a person a private message that goes to their device, and saves in their web archive.
Example: d tweeterland can you help me use twitter and facebook?

• WHOIS username
retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter.
Example: whois peterparker?

• GET username
retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by the person.
Example: get jessica

• NUDGE username
reminds a friend to update by asking what they’re doing on your behalf.
Example: nudge sarah

• FAV username
marks a person’s last twitter as a favorite. (hint: reply to any update with FAV to mark it as a favorite if you’re receiving it in real time)
Example: fav al3x

• STATS
this command returns your number of followers, how many people you’re following, and your bio information.

Turning Twitter off and on from devices

• ON: turns ALL phone notifications on.

• OFF: turns ALL phone notifications off.

• STOP, QUIT: stops all messages to your phone immediately

• ON username: turns on notifications for a specific person on your phone. For example, ON sam.

• OFF username: turns off notifications for a specific person on your phone. For example, OFF chez.

• FOLLOW username: this command allows you to start receiving notifications for a specific person on your phone. Example: follow tweeterland

• LEAVE username: this command allows you to stop receiving notifications for a specific person on your phone. Example: leave lynda

Points to note

• using on/off username from your phone only stops notifications to the place the command comes from; you’ll still collect a person’s updates on the web.
• using follow/leave username from your phone is the same as using on/off username
• following someone from a phone for the first time will also cause you to follow them on the web
• there is no way to stop following a person on the web without visiting their profile and removing them. The off, leave, stop, and quit commands will only disable updates for the device(s) from which they were sent.
• you don’t have to use ON/OFF username from the phone, you can also set individual notifcations from a person’s profile page, or check your following page and manage all phone notification settings there.
Want more information about twitter apps for your phone? See our twitter applications page.