Twitter on mobile phone

[Night Train]

Following on from Arch going all 'smartphone' on me I was tempted to install the twitter app on my phone.

However, I was a bit concerned about the functionality of the app as it says it will access my contacts and read and write to my sim, track my location, stop my phone sleeping, and so on.

What does it all mean? I don't really want to be tracked or have an app access my contacts and sim.

Am I worrying unnecessarily or is it something I should be cautious of?

Cheers.

 

[ColinJ]

It's amazing what features most apps seem to demand access to! It's a bit sinister that companies want access to details of who you are phoning etc., especially when the app is just a simple puzzle game or utility.

Android should be modified so you can still install apps but can choose for yourself what features to allow them access to. App developers would then have to give a very good justification for wanting to access apparently unrelated features. Most apps I've looked at just say that will have access to your contacts (whatever) without explaining what they do with that information.

Lots of apps seem to stop phones sleeping which will tend to gobble up your battery. I can't believe that the phones don't have some sort of very low power timer to bring them out of sleep at pre-determined intervals to see if anything needs to be done.

 

[Night Train]

Cheers Colin. I am a bit of a paranoid Luddite with regards to the amount of 'interest' these software companies have in the nitty gritty of my life.

I will skip it and just twit from my laptop.

Not even going to consider face book as it does likewise, but with my laptop.

 

[paul04]

I always access twitter/facebook with my smartphone, on my samsung galaxy s2, you can set it so twitter/facebook will not sync with your contacts.

 

[Birchy]

Cheers Colin. I am a bit of a paranoid Luddite with regards to the amount of 'interest' these software companies have in the nitty gritty of my life.

I will skip it and just twit from my laptop.

Not even going to consider face book as it does likewise, but with my laptop.

You don't need the app. The app is pretty rubbish anyway. The mobile website version is more than adequate. Just point your phone browser to m.twitter.com and you're away

 

[MrJamie]

In part I think it's to do with Android permissions being in sort of groups, so it might request say 'phonebook permissions' which may include accessing your phonebook/contacts, making calls/txts, accessing your sim, when the app may only want this for a once off genuine reason, it doesn't mean its going to do all/any of those things or even needs access to all of those specific things. For example I think when making an app if you want to just be able to see if wifi is connected, you have to request all the network permissions, which means the app takes access to wifi, Bluetooth, mobile data, internet access, internet state etc and when people download it it warns them of this.

I guess it depends how cynical/paranoid you are really. The location tracking will be there so that you can post location of tweets or photos I imagine, but that doesn't mean that twitter can't record where you go (although the app would kill the battery if it were to actually try to constantly track you). The phonebook access is probably to know your mobile number, or to 'help' find people who know eachother, but it's entirely possible that twitter could store your contacts, in some kind of data harvesting way. The avoiding sleep will presumably just be so that the screen/features don't get turned off while it's trying to use them.

 

[Night Train]

Errrr, I think that has made me more paranoid, Mr Jamie.

I always access twitter/facebook with my smartphone, on my samsung galaxy s2, you can set it so twitter/facebook will not sync with your contacts.

I will look into settings to 'not sync'. Cheers.

The main reason for having Twitter, for me, is to twit, more then to follow.

 

[Birchy]

The reason it wants access to your contacts is for one reason. It needs it so when you click find who to follow or whatever it's called it looks at your contacts to see if they are on twitter.

If you are on android before you click the final time to install an app you can click each permission and it will tell you why it needs each one.

 

[Arch]

You don't need the app. The app is pretty rubbish anyway. The mobile website version is more than adequate. Just point your phone browser to m.twitter.com and you're away

I think I assumed the app and the mobile version were the same thing - shows how much I know!

The app seems fine for me, and I'm not as careful/bothered about permissions and stuff as NT. But it seems I can't sign out of it as me, and I do actually have three identities on Twitter - me, my craft stuff and the one I run for work, in the guise of our little electric vehicle. So it would be handy to swap. Can I sign in and out of the mobile version like I can on the laptop? The main value of doing mobile twitter for me is ease of posting photos from my phone.

 

[PaulSB]

Yes you can sign in and out of the mobile version very simply. Next to the gear wheel (settings) is the icon to allow account switching.

 

[Arch]

Yes you can sign in and out of the mobile version very simply. Next to the gear wheel (settings) is the icon to allow account switching.

Cheers, thanks. I'll keep the app for me, and use the mobile version for the others.

 

[Birchy]

Yes you can sign in and out of the mobile version very simply. Next to the gear wheel (settings) is the icon to allow account switching.

Cheers, thanks. I'll keep the app for me, and use the mobile version for the others.

Do you know you can add all your accounts to the app then just switch between them without having to sign out?

 

[Arch]

Do you know you can add all your accounts to the app then just switch between them without having to sign out?

Oh, can I? That would be ideal.

As long as I don't end up tweeting a personal rant as the company vehicle!

 

[Birchy]

Yeah. IIRC on the "me" page, click the little head and shoulders icon on the left side of the screen then add all your accounts. You can switch between them all with the head with arrows icon. Don't know if that makes sense but hopefully it does

 

[HovR]

.. it says it will access my contacts and read and write to my sim, track my location, stop my phone sleeping, and so on.

All these things have a genuine purpose, it's just they are listed under generic access permission names rather than giving specific reasons. As others have said, access to contacts is so that it can 'Sync' your Twitter contacts with your phone contacts. On my Samsung this allows me to see peoples Tweets straight from my contact list along with other functionality.

Track your location basically means just having access to the GPS/Cellular location to allow the app to tailor what you receive, i.e. you'll see what's trending from the UK rather than the US, and it may also allow you to do things such as 'Geo-Tag' your images or Tweets using fine location if you so choose so that people know where you made them from.

Stop your phone from sleeping is just so that the screen doesn't turn off whilst you are using the application.

It's all fairly innocent stuff if you look in to it.