New year… new Twitter! So far, Twitter has been in the process of rolling out four major updates to their platform in 2022, including new ways to compose and react to tweets. While these features are technically in the testing stage, if they continue to prove themselves to be successful, they will most likely be available to all Twitter users in the near future! So what are these exciting, new updates? Let’s talk about them more in detail together!
1.) Tweet Takes
Twitter is now testing out reaction videos to tweets on iOS. They are officially referred to as “Tweet Takes” and offer users an alternative way to quote others’ tweets. This new feature is assumed to be inspired by TikTok’s “video replies”. Tweet Takes essentially allows a user to choose between creating a video or photo when reacting to a tweet, in addition to the traditional quote tweets.
If you’ve been selected to be a part of Twitter’s test group for this feature, you will see the option as “Quote Tweet With Reaction” once you have tapped the “Retweet” icon. Twitter seems to have followed in the footsteps of Instagram’s new way for users to reply to “reels”, just like TikTok has offered for some time now.
2.) Topics Tag Bar
Twitter is currently working on a “topics tag bar” on iOS, which will presumably allow users to easily be directed to topics that interest them. How Twitter will go about refining topic tags and grouping similar topics together will be revealed over time, but it will hopefully be an effective way for users to engage with other like-minded users.
3.) Universal Tweet Composer Bar
Another new feature that Twitter is testing on iOS is a new “Tweet Composer Bar” which will replace the blue button that used to appear above its navigation menu that allowed users to create a Tweet. Instead, there will now be an easy in-line composer bar.
Twitter User Researcher, Cody Elam, claims that this change is based off of new user-feedback, as users have complained that the previous mechanics of Twitter made it difficult to understand how to start a tweet. Since text boxes are more universally recognized as a place where you can enter text, Twitter is hoping that this change will get more people tweeting, especially those who are new to the platform.
4.) A Share Button for Communities
Lastly, this year Twitter introduced the option for users to be able to share communities with their followers on iOS. The goal of this update is to create an influx in users seeing and therefore joining communities. To share a community, make your way to the Community Page and tap the share icon. This new feature will allow you to share that community with a larger audience, and will even allow you to invite individual users immediately.
Remember that not all of these features are available to every user. Twitter sometimes chooses certain individuals to test out updates to make sure they run smoothly and are actually a popular change before making them available to all users!
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