[UPDATE] Twitter has confirmed they have started experimenting with Topics that which is similar to following an account, except that instead of seeing Tweets from an account, people see Tweets about a topic.
On last night event with journalists, Twitter announced it will start letting users follow topics based on their interests. The tweets about the chosen topics will appear on their timelines.
Topics could range from television shows, celebrities and sports teams so they’ll be no need to follow specific accounts to have their tweets displayed on your timeline.
We began experimenting w/ the ability to follow topics, which is just like following an account, except that instead of seeing Tweets from an account, people see Tweets about a topic. The feature is currently being tested on Android, iOS and web across a variety of topics. $TWTR pic.twitter.com/idVu2xsukG
— Twitter Investor Relations (@TwitterIR) October 24, 2019
How it will work
Twitter will curate the topics using machine learning rather than editorial curation to identify the individual tweets to insert in the users’ timeline. Rob Bishop, Product Manager at Twitter said that they’re testing this new feature on its Android app with sports-related interests but this raises new or rather the same concerns of having a filter bubble.
yeah! asked this Q at the event and @rob_bishop tells me company is starting with sports to observe how it affects these issues.
I’m mildly optimistic would be net positive for pop culture stuff; less so for news topics
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) August 13, 2019
Twitter’s argument for machine learning is that human curation would be too slow to curate tweets around these topics.
Twitter is starting off with sports topics like Formula 1 and the MMMA.
@sriramkri, who works on Twitter's product team, offers a metaphor: You're at a party where you don't know anyone. What if (instead of awkwardly mingling around) you could immediately head to a table with people who shared your mutual interests? That, he says, is Twitter.
— Arielle Pardes (@pardesoteric) August 13, 2019
According to Twitter’s product lead, the company isn’t planning to create topics for every user’s interest and that some topics would be excluded fearing that this feature could be abused and lead to amplification of really bad stuff.
.@CaseyNewton asks in light of the Epstein conspiracies trending this weekend if Twitter would consider getting rid of trending topics. Twitter site integrity leader @yoyoel: “I’m not sure the solution for something that isn’t working perfectly is to get rid of it.”
— Ryan Mac 🙃 (@RMac18) August 13, 2019
However, not everyone is sceptical. Other people think that this new feature would help improve the user experience for onboarding new users.
Twitter is currently creating a whitelist of approved topics from where tweets will be curated.
Worth noting is that you’ll also be able to mute topics in your main timeline but create a secondary timeline that will have multiple topics, accounts and hashtags.
@wgnyc, who works on Twitter's timeline, tells us about an experiment that lets you swipe from your home feed into "dedicated interest experiences," which lets you see conversations only about one particular interest (like sports or skincare or BTS). It's built from Lists.
— Arielle Pardes (@pardesoteric) August 13, 2019
No edit button
Twitter said that users shouldn’t expect the edit button to be launched in the near future as it is not high on their priority list and I agree – there are more issues that they need to work on.
Honestly I agree with this. The edit button should not be Twitter’s highest priority.
I don’t know that the stuff it has released today should be either, tho. https://t.co/Ap9OYSs7GH
— Dieter Bohn (@backlon) August 13, 2019
“Honestly, it’s a feature that I think we should build at some point, but it’s not anywhere near the top of our priorities. That’s the honest answer,” Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter Product Lead said.
Premium Edit Button
That will sure make it the #1 priority 😉 https://t.co/GRfr15foxi
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) August 13, 2019
Twitter also announced how they want to improve its product for international markets and fix the abuse and harassment problems plaguing the platform.
One of the big problems on Twitter is that a lot of the toxic stuff doesn't actually violate Twitter's rules. So @gasca says they're focusing on downranking stuff and filtering stuff that you might not want to see, even if they can't remove it.
— Arielle Pardes (@pardesoteric) August 13, 2019
“It is imperative that we increase the health of the public conversation,” Beykpour said
Vine was really amazing
Kayvon Beykpour added that he was sad that Twitter shut down Vine in early 2017 but cites the state of Twitter at that time was a factor.
Twitter's @kayvz was just asked if he regrets shutting down Vine given the success of TikTok. "I do regret that we shut down Vine," he said, describing the decision as "extremely sad." He said this isn't because of TikTok's success, but just sad they couldn't keep Vine alive
— Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8) August 13, 2019
I regret almost cutting my thumb off on my 12th birthday https://t.co/asm8ZEvFCN
— Tyler Adams (out-of-office) (@TYLERpulse) August 13, 2019
Other features announced include:
- Twitter is working on bringing search feature to DMs
- The ability to now reorder photos in a new tweet after you’ve attached them.
- Support for Apple’s Live Photos
It is still unclear if this feature will be rolled out globally. Anyway, I’m on board with this.
What if Twitter made a “close friends” feature where you could tweet only to a select group of your followers. Imagine the pettiness, it’d be mayhem. They should do it.
— Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos) August 13, 2019
Keep up with everything Twitter here.
[…] Topics will kill these two birds with one stone. Twitter announced it was experimenting with Topics mid-August and has now begun rolling it […]
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