Twitter has two new features in the pipeline, both of which are designed to improve the overall user experience.
First up is a bookmark feature that will allow people to save tweets and come back to them later. Right now, if someone wants to keep track of a tweet, the easiest way is to ‘like’ it (the heart icon on Twitter). But this isn’t without its problems. Not only does it mess with the Twitter algorithm that shows you other tweets you might like by sending it potentially false signals, but it also means you have to trawl back through all the tweets you’ve liked that day just to find it again.
The bookmarking feature will work like Facebook’s save option – which, last year, was being utilised by more than 250 million users per month.
Twitter product manager Jesar Shah shared more about the development on her account:
For Hack Week @Twitter we started developing #SaveForLater. Here’s the early prototype that we put together in a week, which is likely to change. pic.twitter.com/c5LekvVF3l
— jesar (@jesarshah) October 9, 2017
The second new feature is a ‘Happening Now’ module that will enable Twitter users to find real-time news events and discussions. Twitter says the Happening Now notifications will be based on users’ interests and will be sports-related to begin with.
Feel the roar of the crowd, no matter where you are.
We’re rolling out a new way to see what’s happening now, starting with sports in ! Available on Android and iOS starting today. https://t.co/lmBFCK4DG0 pic.twitter.com/cv4wL8hCxA
— Twitter (@Twitter) October 10, 2017
Over time, more topics will be added, allowing Twitter users to more easily connect with tweets relevant to events that are of interest to them.
While you can kind of do this now by searching for the relevant hashtag, that requires you to know the hashtag in the first place.
[Related reading: Increase your social media reach with hashtags]
Both new features are all part of Twitter’s overall plan to improve the user experience and, in theory, attract and retain more users.
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