After offering to send you push notifications about must-read tweets and must-follow users on Tuesday, Twitter on Wednesday took a more serious approach to notifications.
Now you can sign up to receive alerts from accounts you follow. Not every tweet will be pushed to your phone, only ones the account marks as alerts. You don't have to have Twitter's iOS or Android apps to get the alerts, but if you do, they'll be sent as push notifications. If you don't have the apps, you'll get alerts as SMS texts. If you're scrolling through your stream, alert tweets will be marked with an orange bell.
Alerts are not designed for important life updates from friends. Twitter said in a Wednesday blog post that the system is limited to law enforcement and public safety agencies; emergency management agencies; city and municipal governments and their representatives; county and regional agencies; and state, federal, and national organizations, like the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A complete list of more than 100 participating agencies is available here. Organizations have to enroll in Twitter's alert program to send out alerts.
Subscribe for alerts on an agency's Twitter alerts page.
The program is opt-in, so you won't be automatically signed up for an account's alerts just because you follow them. Sign up for an account's alerts by going to twitter.com/username/alerts. Replace username with the account name. Follow the directions to subscribe to alerts, as seen on the right.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon