The Largest List of Text Message Shorthand (IM, SMS) and Interne. The Most Popular Twitter Acronyms. Top 15 Twitter Acronyms. Most of the acronyms you’ll find on Twitter are borrowed directly from decades of net culture, developed as easy Internet shorthand on electronic bulletin boards (BBSes), IRC, IM, and email.
Twitter’s integration with SMS naturally means that texting lingo is inherently part of the argot. Twitter, like each online platforms before it, quickly evolved its own lingo. The 140 character limit necessarily forces concision. Unfortunately, that shortening can also hide meaning, especially if you’re at all new to Twitter. Below are the acronyms that I’ve encountered most frequently on Twitter over the years, along with appropriately short explanations.