According to reports, starting today, Twitter finally allows users to post temporary tweets.
Twitter’s new feature “Fleets” has been tested in multiple markets this year, and it looks a lot like Snapchat’s “Stories” feature. In addition, Twitter is also testing a new audio feature called audio spaces, which is very similar to the audio application Clubhouse that sparked hot discussion earlier this year, which features user invitations. Many new initiatives show that the famous social giant Twitter is trying to expand the way users interact on its platform.
Of course, what Twitter is doing Facebook has already done many times: imitating certain characteristics of successful competitors’ products in order to remain invincible. The introduction of these new features also shows that Twitter, like Facebook, is increasingly interested in private and group-based interactions. The above two new features indicate that Twitter hopes to attract users who are unwilling to share information that can be permanently retained on the public platform. After all, in terms of the number of active users, Twitter is still much smaller than Facebook, Instagram or TikTok.
Kayvon Beykpour, Head of Product at Twitter, said: “The most typical conversation on Twitter is a short exchange between multiple people. This is not surprising. It is also very powerful. But if we want to have a wider conversation, we need to To support other forms, we need to support other use cases to help people have more thoughtful debates and more thoughtful communication, which is not possible with 280 characters.”
The new Twitter feature, Fleets, allows users to post content that will disappear after 24 hours to their followers. This form really looks like the “story” feature on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Fleets content will appear at the top of the Twitter application and can also be accessed by clicking on someone’s account avatar.
Just like the Stories feature of Instagram and Snapchat, Twitter users can also share comments on other tweets, videos, and photos. Twitter said that, eventually, users can also integrate features such as stickers and live broadcasts. It is worth noting that Twitter has not yet established a way to prevent people from taking screenshots of content shared on Fleets, or to provide notifications when someone takes screenshots of your temporary tweets.
It is important that Fleets content cannot be forwarded or shared. In addition, users’ responses to Fleets are private and will become part of Twitter’s existing direct messaging system. The purpose of Twitter’s decision to do this is to attract users who do not want to post publicly on the app to participate in this semi-private form. The Fleets feature is launched globally today, so every Twitter user can use this new feature.
Next we will talk about audio spaces, which is an audio-based dialogue tool. This feature builds on the audio tweets feature that Twitter launched earlier this year, which allows people to post up to 140 seconds of voice recordings. The audio tweets function will last until this fall, and Twitter will also add the transcription function in 2021, mainly because of previous criticism that the deaf or hard of hearing cannot use the tool.
The idea behind audio spaces is to make Twitter’s audio features more conversational. With this new feature, users can start a conversation while allowing others to participate or listen to the voice. Twitter company likened this feature to a “well-organized dinner” and expects this tool to be used in scenarios such as debates. Indeed, it looks a lot like a clubhouse.
Currently, the audio spaces function is not open to the public. Twitter still plans to conduct some experiments, and like Clubhouse, Twitter hopes to launch this feature through a limited invitation form.
Twitter platform designer Maya Gold Patterson (Maya Gold Patterson) said: “We will launch the first experiment of audio spaces function to a very small group, this group includes some people who have suffered language abuse and harm on the Twitter platform. People, some women and marginalized groups.”
Twitter reiterated that all content on Twitter, including Fleets and audio spaces functions, must comply with Twitter’s regulations. Just like ordinary tweets, Fleets will also be affected by various Twitter hashtags, including those that are false or misleading.
Although these new features and new features that will be launched try to let users do something fresh on the Twitter platform, they will also bring new challenges in content review. For example, for audio spaces, Twitter must solve the tricky technical problem of auditing real-time audio content. Clubhouse is facing an uphill battle in creating and enforcing rules for its platform. Not long ago, a 300-person conversation in Clubhouse turned into an anti-Semitic rally, and the platform was also scrutinized by regulatory authorities. At the same time, the Fleets function provides a new way for the dissemination of misinformation, and the emergence of more direct information means that non-public content is not easily accessible to other users and content managers.
Nevertheless, we do not hope that Twitter will stop experimenting and exploring new features in the short term. Twitter said it is still studying the effects of product improvements during the election and hinted that it may continue to improve these features. In addition, Twitter is also exploring ways to promote private apology and forgiveness to encourage users to embrace more empathy. Just last month, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (Jack Dorsey) hinted that he is interested in letting users choose their own algorithms, a move that may greatly change the Twitter platform we currently see.
All these actions show that the Twitter platform is not interested in confined to past practices. It is also a reminder that those social media giants still “plagiarize” each other’s products regardless of everything.
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