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back to article Twitter will leap into instant-messaging world with new app: report

Twitter is about to add to the world's store of instant messaging apps. All Things D reports the avian-themed social network has considered a standalone messaging tool that would allow people to exchange 140-character missives that don't appear on their Twitter timelines. If the plan comes to fruition, it will make Twitter a …

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  1. jake Silver badge

    BSD's "talk" still works, and has been useful since 1983[1].

    Nothing new under the sun ...

    [1] "talk" existed long before that, but it wasn't until 1983 that it became useful.

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    1. ricegf
      Reply Icon

      Re: BSD's "talk" still works, and has been useful since 1983[1].

      "Talk" is actually more fun than any IM, since you can see your correspondent's letters as they are entered, typos and all. We have it installed on about a thousand Linux computers at work just for that. :-)

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow a 140 character messaging app... on my phone...

    ..wait isn't that SMS?

    Twitter manages to explore new depths of pointlessness.

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  3. PaulR79

    140 character limit on IM?

    What? It's bad enough with tweets being limited to 140 characters (still..) and while that may have been part of the charm it quickly became annoying to me. I know there are alternatives and services such as TMI and TwitLonger but they feel like sticking an extra piece of paper to the bottom of an essay when you ran out of room.

    Ignoring the potential of a 140 character limit IM service I can't wait to be using it so I can talk to someone and suddenly a conversation goes like this:

    Me: hey, you up for <popular activity> later?

    Them: sure. what time?

    -----------------------------

    sponsored IM: looking for a new boiler? we can help and we do insulation too!

    -----------------------------

    Both of us: wtf?

    ---------------

    Top Tweet: Random unfunny account: Don't you hate it when something happens in your life? #obligatoryhashtag

    ---------------

    Me: I'll call you...

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  4. joanbee

    There's an app opportunity here. Twitter blocker and whitelist.

    Heavens knows you can't live without one for your SMS.

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  5. Ben Rose
    WTF?

    Full circle

    So twitter starts as an SMS based service, limited on characters due to the protocol it runs across. Anybody could use SMS, but they used twitter to be social.

    Now you can use it for IM? But everybody had that to start with.

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