Twitter Expands SMS Tweeting in Canada

Canadian Twitterers using Rogers or Fido can now update to the service and receive updates using SMS. Tweets are treated as standard messages by these services, so there are no extra charges according to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

"The Twitter message limit of 140 characters was based on the limit of 160 characters imposed by SMS in general—we just needed some room to include your name in front of the message," he says. "It’s this simple constraint that allows Twitter to work well in so many places."

Stone says that while the company is thrilled to provide two-way SMS communication to more people, they’re busy working on the rest of the world. Good news for those missing out on this big feature.

When you can easily Tweet from anywhere via SMS, there is bound to be a whole lot more tweeting going on. Let’s just hope Twitter can handle the load.

Those who wish to activate Twitter with their mobile network need to go to their settings page. Enter your number with a "+" and your country code (leaving off the leading 0 of your number if applicable). There is also a checkbox that you have to check, which says that it’s ok for Twitter to send text messages to your phone.