As promised in our previous blog, we’re taking a trip down memory lane and bringing you Twitter’s top updates over the past 12 months. From fleeting moments to audio spaces, it’s fair to say that the platform has had its share of ups and downs, now it’s time to see what’s hot and what’s simply not!
1. A fleeting moment!
Ok, blink and you probably missed Fleets, which were brought in by the platform in November 2020, to rival Instagram’s Stories. This ephemeral messaging feature lasted no longer than ten months and by August 2021 they were no more! Why were they removed? Well, in a nutshell they weren’t as popular as Twitter had hoped they would be, so it was goodbye from them!
2. Audio Spaces
The place where live audio conversations happen, Spaces finally launched on the platform giving users the opportunity to Tweet and talk. Allowing for open, authentic, and unfiltered discussions, this feature can cover every topic and conversation from small and intimate to millions of listeners. Still relatively new, we’re just getting to grips with Spaces but expect to hear more about it in 2022!
3. That’s just super!
Twitter launched Super Follows to help people on the platform earn a monthly income from the conversations they create. Basically, this means that people can pay to Super Follow you, where they’ll receive perks such as bonus content and interactions that an unpaid follower doesn’t see. Of course, like with all subscription services, there is criteria that has to be met before you can start getting Super Follows and we’ll be interested to see how popular these accounts become as the new year beckons.
4. No longer becoming a cropper!
Did you ever get annoyed when Twitter cropped your image? Well get annoyed no more! The platform has recently rolled out full-size image previews, meaning you no longer have to gamble how your image is going to show up in the timeline. It’ll feature exactly how you upload it -result! This is just one of the ways that the platform is making its services more accessible and we should see more changes similar to this in the future.
5. Consider yourself removed!
In a bid to maximise safety on the platform, a new feature was rolled out allowing web users to remove followers from their account without having to block them. This feature is particularly useful if you don’t want the repercussions that blocking someone can often come with. Ok, so this doesn’t mean that the person you’ve removed from your follow list can’t start following you again, however they need to notice they’ve been removed first! Manufactured as a “soft block”, this will certainly be welcomed by accounts who may be continuously trolled by a certain account.
6. You ‘th-read’ it here first!
Last month Twitter announced that it had acquired Threader, an app that enables users to compile and share tweet threads in a more readable format, by simply tweeting ‘@threader_app compile’ within a thread reply chain. An interesting move, we’ve got our eyes peeled to see how this one pans out!
7. Feeling blue?
Earlier this year Twitter launched Twitter Blue in Australia and Canada; a subscription version of the platform which provides extra features including undo tweets, ad-free articles, bookmark folders, custom navigation, app icons and themes to name a few! Only recently launched in the US, this service isn’t currently available in the UK, however this could be one of our updates in 2022, so watch this space!
And just like that there’s some of Twitter’s top updates! If you can’t wait to see what Facebook has been up to, you don’t have long to wait! Our blog on Facebook’s fabulous new features is coming soon, so watch this space!
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