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Comment by rjvir | Hacker News Reader

What does this mean for Twitter Digits? Will their free SMS authentications continue?

It would be a perfect fit if they phased in Twitter Digits as a Firebase authentication provider - I suspect many developers (including myself) already use these 2 services in tandem.

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They do say

> During the transition period, Digits, the SMS authentication services, will be maintained by Twitter.

but it's unclear what will happen long term

Long-term it will be with Google.

It says so here: As part of this acquisition Digits will be transitioning to Google over the coming months but will be maintained and operated by Twitter in the interim

The main thing is that Digits is free. We are using it in our products. I hope Google doesn't have plans to earn money here

I wonder what it costs to operate Twitter Digits. I can't imagine they are using Twilio as an SMS gateway.

Twitter has a bunch of longstanding SMS delivery agreements, so it's quite cheap.

Crazy thought but does Digits have value for Google with adding SMS to Allo?

Twitter used to be the biggest SMS sender in United States. Much larger than Twilio, even bigger than operators like Verizon and AT&T. Infrastructure that came from Cloudhopper acquisition with continuous care and improvement gave Twitter a reliable and super cost effective _world-wide_ SMS delivery platform.

(I was an employee 2012–2016)

Wow, thanks for the insight. It's easy to forget that Twitter was an SMS centric platform not too long ago.

Hi Berk. ;)

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