The Cheese Stands Alone

So Twitter rolled out a new feature that I adore. And I’m apparently the only one.

That’s ok, I like being weird.

The Scoop:

Twitter now notifies you via email or SMS for every reply/mention. This is a welcome addition to anyone who, as a rule, responds to mentions as quickly as is humanly possible. I try to.

This new notification is not a huge deal, I suppose, if you leave your Twitter application of choice running at all times because it refreshes often and provides a visual indication of new mentions.

Also, a number of 3rd party applications can be relied on to do the same.

The Problem:

For me, battery life is an issue. Everything I run continuously drains my lifeline and I am often left with dead air. Since I don’t carry a second battery like Chanthana, often forget my charger, or am without an outlet, I try to plan accordingly, painfully aware of my organizational limitations and crippling time management issues.

Also, I’m cheap.

I may be the last person on the planet without an unlimited text plan so the SMS pings won’t work for me.

Therefore, email notifications are a welcome feature for me. Others, however are saying that they get too much email as it is and are toggling off en masse.

Granted, I don’t receive so many mentions or replies as to become an annoyance. In addition, I get almost zero junk email (who do I thank for this?) so there are no cons to this scenario for me.

That being said, I still take the extra step to anticipate a time when this might be a problem.

A Solution/Suggestion for Gmail users:

I set up a folder for Twitter notifications and configured it so that on receipt, the notifications bypass the inbox and land directly in this separate folder. Like this:

Open the offending email, and click on “More Options” then “Filter Messages Like These” which will take you to this screen:

No need for action here, just click “Next Step”

Here, check the box to “Skip the Inbox” and “Apply the Label” then select (or create) the Label (or Folder) you want to collect these notifications.

Be sure to check “Also Apply Filter to xxx Conversations Below” (which I forgot to do when I captured the screen – can you tell?) so that any emails fitting this criteria will be moved in one swoop.

Finally, click “Create Filter” and you’re done.

As you can see, I’ve created numerous Labels/Folders in an attempt to keep my inbox organized.

If this is helpful, fantastic!

If it’s so obvious you cannot believe someone was feeble enough to commit it to a blog post, keep it to yourself.  No one likes a Know-It-All.