In an industry set on rapid growth, any slowdown in user acquisition or monetization sounds the alarm bells. And Twitter, like it or not, has been buzzing about it a lot lately.
After a few years of stagnant monthly growth in active users and market disappointment, Twitter has been on the rise so far in 2017 - outperforming investors' projections by generating more money and adding more new users than initially expected.
Faced with a negative narrative, the company quickly took action and mostly focused on user-driven changes - and it seems to work.nner.
Over the past year, Twitter has made a number of changes, big and small, to drive employee engagement. users and improve the overall integration and experience of the platform. But we know how difficult it can be to keep up with these types of updates, which is why we've put together a list of the most notable features and changes below. Marketers, take note.
7 New Twitter features
1) The end of the vineyard ... and the end of the periscope?
When tech companies are struggling to grow, like Twitter for much of 2016, they will typically do one of two things: downsize to make financial ends meet or grow more. new innovations to attract and engage users.
On Twitter 's case,it did both - Twitter sunsetted Vine and launched an in-app live video streaming feature - eliminating the need to stream from Periscope for many users.
Vine paved the way for the popular short version and endless looping videos that we see on Snapchat and Instagram today ( like this ), and in target fall 2016 , it was eventually shut down when Twitter focused on live video content.
The Vines are still available to share and watch (and review), but now the six-second looping videos need to be saved and shared directly to Twitter or saved to the creator's camera roll.
Next, in December 2016 , Twitter launched its own live video streaming and recording feature in the app, thus eliminating the need to broadcast live depuis the Periscope application.
Twitter hasn't cut Periscope like it did with Vine, so users can still download the app and stream live video to their audience. But these changes in such rapid succession disappointed many avid fans and users - and reflected Twitter's growing need to keep users in its app.
It's no secret that video is just not popular anymore - it's also an indispensable part of any successful social media platform. Twitter is trying to innovate in its video creation, delivery and sharing tools to give users the types of content they want - short form, looping, and live streams - to compete with others. platforms, attract new users and retain existing users.
We haven't seen Twitter jump on the creation bander a pop-up video stories feature like most major social media platforms - for now. But we should expect more features and announcements - like the pro sports and breaking news live stream Twitter offers - that signal that we will continue to focus on video content in the future.
2) A New Layout
In June 2017, Twitter completely redesigned its desktop site and mobile app to make Twitter feel "lighter, faster and easier to use " in response to user feedback:
Twitter 's user base has slowly grown - and at times shrunk - over the past few years, and these UI and UX innovations could help draw people to Twitter, while preventing users from leaving it.
Here is a preview of the changes:
- Decluttered User Interface : Twitter now offers a side menu where users can more easily navigate to heir profiles, lists and personal settings - instead of having to tap several times on the application.
- Number of replies, retweets and similar mentions in real time : Users can now watch the number of engagement with tweets increase in real time in the application, instead of refreshing and reloading tweets.
- Lighter typography and iconography : Twitter changed the app font, made some headlines bolder to grab attention in the busy feed, and changed the "Reply " button in a conversation bubble (it no longer looked like an arrow intower).
- Round avatars: Profile pictures are now round and not square.
And here's what those changes look like in action:
Most of the changes were widely criticized by users, but it is the Internet after all - and Twitter will never make everyone happy. Some users have pointed out that cosmetic UI changes are not as important as improving users' abilities to report and dispute abusive language on the platform - and so on. 'is next on our list.
3) More comprehensive anti-harassment and cyberbullying features
One of the biggest complaints against Twitter is the ease with which harassment can spreader and exacerbate on the network - and there was no better test of that hypothesis than the political rhetoric surrounding the recent global elections. Historically, tweets aimed at threatening or scaring individuals on Twitter have gone unhindered and have prompted a number of users to delete their accounts or even fear for their safety - as a blogger. Ariel Waldman has chronicled .
The Twitter Rules prohibit the kind of abuse we hear here - threats, hate speech, bullying and harassment on the basis of race, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age of users, ability, disease or nationality. However, until March 1, 2017 , there were not many options for users to report and stop abuse in real time. Twitter has started responding to harassment and threatsthese over the network with a series of features and services aimed at ensuring the safety of people. These additions include:
- Notification filtering : Users can specify which accounts they do not want to receive notifications from. For example, you can filter notifications from accounts without profile photos and with unverified email addresses.
- Mute Option : Users can turn off specific keywords and phrases, and choose how long they don't want to see this type of content.
- Report transparency : Users now receive notifications when - and if - Twitter intervenes on a report of abuse of user files.
- Timeout : Reported users are sometimes temporarily put on "timeout" while Twitter investigates the report for eprevent further dissemination of abusive content.
- Safe Search : Machine learning technology will prevent users from receiving potentially abusive content when they search for tweets on the platform.
- Hide abusive tweets : Twitter has started to identify low-quality tweets from potentially abusive accounts so that users see high-quality content first. Tweets will still be on Twitter - they'll just be harder to find.
- Prevention of new abuse : Twitter has started blocking flagged and flagged users from creating new accounts with the same contact details in order to prevent repeat offenders on the platform.
These updates are essential to ensure that Twitter remains a welcoming place for all users. In a leaked memo the'last year , former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo stressed the importance of this decision, saying:
4) Moments for all
Twitter introduced Moments - tweets curated around a single topic or story, all in one place - in 2015 . Moments allowed publishers and brands to collect their tweets and tweets from other users on a topic to tell a story in a story collage - and in August 2016 , Twitter opened Moments to all users who wanted to create them. Here's what they look like:
A squirrel sneaks into the New York building and things get crazy 🌰Now, whether you want to feature your own tweetstorm, content from other people on the platform, or both, anyone can easily create a shareable moment to tell a story. You can access theExplore tab (or the Moments tab on the Twitter desktop site), and create a new Moment there. You can also find the tweet of your choice to feature and create a moment while you scroll or on your own profile:
Moments present anot its possibility for users to be discovered and shared on Twitter, so opening this posting feature to everyone was a smart move.
5) Explore Twitter
In January 2017 , Twitter removed the Moments tab and created the Explore tab on the mobile app , which combined Twitter trends, Moments, and research - all in one place.
This was a simple new feature that combined already existing features, but by putting them all in one tab, Twitter made it easier for users to find new content on the web.has the platform and caring about it - and hopefully staying in the app longer.
Here's what it looks like (if you haven't noticed it already):
6) More Characters to Respond
Twitter has made a big change in the way that users can respond to each other directly. Whereas before, users had to @mention the account they wanted to reply to, the mention is now integrated directly into the reply button. This gives users more characters to respond to, as they don't have to type the username and cut their precious 140 characters. Check it out:
This change faced qSome criticism because users cannot respond specifically to specific people. So if you are included in a tweet with multiple other users, everyone will receive a reply notification, even if the reply is not specified for them. To specify who you want to reply to, you can click on the Twitter hyperlink handles and check or uncheck the users you want to send a notification to, like this:
So while Twitter gives users more space to express themselves, it might also give them the opportunity to communicate with too many people. other users if they don't choose the above feature - especially if bullies and abusers all respond to tweets.
7) Safer DM
If you receive private private messages from users you do not follow, theUsers now have the option to approve or deny the connection request - and flag the message if inappropriate.
This feature is a victory on many levels. It helps users better filter for abusive content - and choose whether or when they want to engage. It also eliminates the need for a tweet to ask someone to follow you before contacting them via DM. Instead, you can just message them - and they'll approve it if they want.
4 other Twitter features you might have missed
I wrote the original version of this blog post from 2016 with a different set of new features, and I wanted to make sure you always know about these cool new (-ish) features.
1) The escape route to the number of 140 characters
Regarding the debates, the limitTwitter's 140 character size is about as controversial as the Oxford comma . Some say that the character limit on tweets is essential to the identity of Twitter. It secures Twitter in place as one of the fastest ways to spread ideas. Others are ready to see it lifted, saying removing the 140-character limit would open up Twitter to a whole new range of engaging content and potentially new users. Adding multimedia content to your tweets is one area where the pain of the character cap is particularly acute.
By default, media links used to take 23 characters in a tweet, or about 16% of your allocated characters - not a small part. That said, images are a boon for interactivity on your tweets: conducted a study and found that tweets with images resulted in 18% more clicks and150% more retweets.
Last year, Twitter announced that media (eg images, polls, videos) attached to tweets will soon no longer be counted in your 140 character account. The same rule would apply to @handle when replying to someone else's tweet.
This update makes some changes to the way replies and retweets are handled. Users will no longer have to add characters before a reply - for example, ". @ Meghkeaney " - to ensure that their reply is seen by all subscribers. Not to mention that users will be able to retweet their own content if they want to add an idea to a previous post.
2) Accessible Images
In October 2015, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey launched a public call for developers to submit ideas for improvements to the software.oduits:
One of the ideas generated from this invitation aimed to make Twitter more accessible to visually impaired users. In other words, people using Twitter's iOS and Android apps can now add alt-text deions to images in tweets. Websites have long used alt text to help visually impaired visitors understand the messages conveyed by images, using assistive technologies such as a screen reader or braille display.
The accessible The images feature must be implemented at the user level, a drawback as it is gaining mass adoption, but it is quite easy to set up. On an Android or iOS device, go to your Twitter settings (the gear icon) and do the following:
- Press Accessibility
- Next for Write image deions , enable this feature.
- From there, when you add an image to your tweet, just hit Add deion to insert deif text.
Adding accessibility may seem like a lesser victory, but it is a good practice across the board for businesses and organizations looking to increase their hearing and to act correctly.
3) Native GIF lookup
Even though this list is not weighted in terms of meaning, it took real will not to place it number one. As someone whose addiction to GIFs is beyond belief, this version of functionality was important to me. In 2015, users shared over 100 million GIFs on Twitter . When you think about the steps that it took before to shareager an animated image on Twitter, that number is even more impressive.
Previously, you had to quit Twitter, search for the appropriate GIF on any number of GIF search engines, save that image, come back to Twitter, recompose your tweet, and finally upload the image . Today, with Twitter's new GIF feature, all you need to do is click a button and search there - no saving or downloading is required.
(By the way, if you like GIFs, I highly recommend this post from my colleague. It 'sa fascinating story and analysis of why GIFs have become so popular.)
4) The switch to uncropped photos
Twitter may have started as a text-based platform, but images are behind some of its main engagements. This is why the Twitter News has adjusted its image size requirements to not force cropping most images has received such praise. The resulting experience means Twitter is more visual and engaging from the get-go. See the before and after photos provided by Twitter below:
Besides setting To update uncropped photos, Twitter also introduced a new view for multi-photo views. This update allows users to see even more individual photos included in a collage.
Throughout the punditry On the current and future state of Twitter, most of the narrative at this point has focused on the competition. Twitter's response, however, has largely focused on its users. While some of these updates may seem small, overall they signal a move towards a much more intuitive user experience, fueled largely by user feedback. Time will tell if this focus on fan-favorite features equates to a measurable increase in usage and revenue.
What do you think of the latest features of Twitter? What else would you like to see? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in May 2016 and has been updated for freshness reasons.r, for accuracy and completeness. em>
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