Twitter is known for giving a strong voice to people from all corners of the world. The layout and smooth functioning have also made it easy for users to spend more time on the app.
Twitter survived in the world where Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook were ruling and the reason was having honest opinions of the users on the latest topics. However, there are still some issues that need attention for further growth of the platform.
In order to attract more audience, Twitter needs to make some serious changes. The company is going to make some changes by launching Twitter’s new app in beta mode.
How is Twitter’s new beta app going to work? Well, Twitter will have a selected group of people to test the new features in the beta app. These users will have a full-fledged discussion on various new features just like any user can have on any trending topic.
From the discussions, Twitter will pick up all the data and use that to make decisions. The decisions will be regarding the features and whether it should be launched for the entire user base in general.
The app is scheduled to be launched in this week and we will see Twitter’s first look quite soon. Twitter said, “only a few thousand users will be able to get the beta version and not everyone who applies for it”. The users that will be allowed to test the Twitter beta app will be allowed to have an open discussion about the features of the app.
This programme will not be supervised by the NDA unlike other experiment programmes conducted by Twitter. There is more to it than just a basic beta testing app.
Unlike other beta apps, the Twitter beta app will not have final features. The discussion panel will control which features to be built further or which features should not be.
Twitter’s director of product management, Sara Haider, told Techcrunch, “Unlike a traditional beta that is the last step before launch, we’re bringing people in super early,”. The first version of the beta app will have features that will improve the conversations on Twitter. There will be different colour schemes and visual cues to mark important discussions.
Haider believes that there are going to be a lot of significant changes and it should not be dropped on users all at once. This is why Twitter will be slowly launching new additions and making changes in a way that the entire user base can adapt to it easily.
Expected Features in The New Twitter Beta App
1. Colour Coded Replies
The new app will have colour-coded replies. The colours will be different for the poster of the tweet, people you follow and people whom you don’t follow. This will make a clear distinction in a long Twitter conversation. These conversations will also have visual cues to help users find the best and most relevant tweet in the thread.
2. New Algorithms
Twitter is going to have a new algorithm for all the tweet replies. Earlier, the problem was that users couldn’t find the tweets that they wanted to keep updated about. To do so they had to either ‘heart’ it or had to use the ‘Tweets & Replies’ section to find the tweets. With the new update, all the replies will be arranged as per a user’s interest.
In the future, Twitter may also have a ‘highlight’ feature for the tweet replies.
3. Removing Engagement Icons
Twitter users ‘heart’ and ‘retweet’ as a way of engagement. In the new update, there is no heart or retweet icon under every reply. The reason behind this is a simplified view for users who do not wish to engage with the thread. However, this does not mean others can’t engage with the tweets in a thread. By clicking on the particular tweet, the icons will appear just like in the current version.
Twitter was not originally built the way it is today. The platform was updated depending on how the users were using it. The features such as retweet, hashtags, @mentions, and many more were not originally in the app but were added later on seeing the users behavior. The same is being followed with the beta app and we shall see some changes in Twitter soon.
Stay tuned for what’s coming next!