Facebook released improvements to its Status Updates feature over the weekend, including SMS support and other Twitter-like features. But the improvements are not simply a case of Facebook copying Twitter since the Status Updates feature has been available to Facebook users for nearly a year, still, with the addition of SMS support, the featureset is now nearly identical to that of Twitter.
Status Updates can be changed from your profile page or, with the new features, it's now possible to updated your status through SMS messages — just like Twitter.
Once you've linked your mobile number to your account, you can send SMS messages to FBOOK (32665) and the updates will appear on your account. Update messages must have the prefix ‘@'. Users can set a daily limit for notifications using the “Edit Preferences” link on the mobile page.
In addition to posting through a mobile device, users can now subscribe to a friend's updates via SMS. Other ways to consume your friend's Status Updates include a new page listing all your friends and updates in one spot and new RSS feeds for Status Updates.
The new features have led many to suggest the Facebook is gunning for Twitter, but somehow I don't think that's the case. Rather it seems that the engineers at Facebook realized they already had Twitter-like features, they just hadn't enabled it. I doubt anyone is going to abandon Twitter in favor of Facebook. On the flip side and unfortunately for Twitter, it now seems unlikely that anyone will abandon Facebook for Twitter.
