tXt (also known as GroupSMS) is a mobile chat service that enables a subscribers to quickly send the same message to several members of a group from a single SMS, instead of having to manually resend the same message to all the members of a given group. It can be used in the various group scenarios such as a family, bible study groups, and golfing buddies, just to name a few.

Ok, bible study groups, *g*. I think it is great that Safaricom provides such a service that can be managed via SMS. But on the other hand, there are some drawbacks. They charge 10KSH per SMS.

Twitter seems to be good alternative to me instead. Since some weeks I have put up a network with family and friends from Kenya and Germany. Via Twitter it is possible to receive 250 SMS per week at no charge. Messages can be sent via SMS (at your normal SMS rates), Web or Messenger. Twitter does not depend solely on SMS. It can be managed via website or Instant Messenger as well. They also offer a handy mobile site that can be found on m.twitter.com. All you need is to put up an account for yourself and friends and start following each others “tweets”. The only function I am missing at Twitter is the possibility to put up your own groups within the people that follow your tweets - e.g. “bible study”, family or co-workers.

Jaiku is a similar service that also offers SMS, but not to the extend of Twitter. Good thing are their group-channels. I’m not quite sure why Jaiku isn’t as pupular as twitter, but maybe just because twitter came first. Safaricom’s tXt might be a real good thing for exchanging few information within a small group once in a while. Group-size is restricted to only ten participants, so this limits use e.g. as one way information channel for large groups. In case you need something of that kind, be sure to give Twitter or Jaiku a try. What I could not find on Twitter is a way to put up accounts solely by SMS. It is possible to invite friends from an existing account via SMS though. A quite extensive introduction to twitter can be found on Caroline Middlebrook’s weblog.

Here is the Twitter-FAQ answering most of your possible questions. This are the commands you can use via SMS or Messenger provided on twitter.com:

Twitter Lingo

Send these commands to +44 762 4801423 or over IM and interact with Twitter on your mobile phone or chat window!

Inviting or Adding People

• invite +49 454 784564 john sends a text invite to john (use the full number including the country code)
• follow username you will get phone updates from this person (requires initial approval)

Getting More Updates

• on enables twitter updates
• get gets recent updates from all your friends
• get username gets this person’s last update
• follow all turns on updates (entire friends list)
• nudge username encourages this person to update

Getting Fewer Updates

• leave username disables updates from this person
• leave all turns off updates (entire friends list)
• off disables twitter updates

Finding Out Stuff

• stats a few statistics about your Twitter account
• help sends back a list of twitter lingo commands
• followers sends back a list of your followers

Talking To Friends

• d username message sends a direct message to this person.
• To update your own Twitter timeline just text or IM whatever is on your mind.

I guess if Safaricom would extend their service on Instant messenger and web this would be much more useful. The Website they mention to manage Groups does not seem to be available (or is this just the case from Germany?).