O2 and Vodafone UK have agreed in a partnership with micro-blogging service Twitter in launching a new service for its O2 subscribers. O2 will provide its subscribers with free texts from Twitter to their handsets.

Starting August 1 every O2 subscriber will be able to start this features and receive direct messages and @ replies to their mobile phone.

“We believe that mobile will soon become the most popular way of accessing social networking sites, giving real time access to tweets and status updates wherever you are,” said Antony Douglas, Head of Content at O2. “The agreements we now have in place with Twitter and the other key sites brings this a step closer, making it quick and easy for O2 customers to access their favourite social networks straight from their mobile.”