While for most of its life Twitter remained largely the same, the last year has seen the social media platform introduce a host of new features and updates.
Some of these new features, such as Twitter Spaces and Twitter for Professionals, have found success on the platform, while others, mainly Fleets, were quickly rolled back.
Here’s a look at what’s in store for Twitter. And no, there’s still no edit button.
New Twitter Features
Lots of Twitter’s new additions see staggered releases, as the developers iterate and improve on the original form. This means different audiences, often separated by geography or devices, will receive new features at different times. Here are some of the features seeing an ongoing rollout.
Twitter Communities
Twitter Communities is a new feature that allows users to create and join groups to engage in discussions about specific topics. The Subreddit/Facebook Group alternative segments Twitter feeds further by allowing users to send posts directly to a Community, rather than releasing it out for all to see on their feed.
First released in September 2021, the rollout of Communities is still ongoing, with Android users only gaining access to the feature in January 2022. Some users still cannot access Communities altogether.
The ability to create these Communities also remains limited, with emails going out on a regular schedule to users who signed up to the Pilot scheme.
Twitter Blue
Rumours of a premium version of Twitter had been around for some time before the launch of Twitter Blue.
Twitter Blue is a monthly subscription service that gives Twitter users access to exclusive features, introducing bookmarks, custom app icons, new themes, and an undo button. There’s also a suggestion that TweetDeck could become a Twitter Blue feature in the future.
At the moment, it is only available in the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.
As a bonus (depending on your perspective), Twitter Blue users are among the first to gain access to Twitter’s NFT offerings, allowing them to proudly display their owned non-fungible tokens in a hexagonal profile picture.
Twitter Downvotes
Perhaps the most controversial of the new features (NFTs excluded), Twitter has now begun rolling out downvotes for some users. Unlike likes or retweets, or Reddit’s downvotes, Twitter’s downvotes are not visible. Twitter claims downvotes will help decide whether the content is relevant, encouraging users to downvote content that “isn’t adding to the conversation”.
Following its June 2021 release, the downvote feature continues to roll out across Twitter, with a new batch of users gaining access in February 2022, according to The Verge.
Upcoming Twitter Features
Aside from these already announced features, we’ve also received details of upcoming, yet-to-be-announced, potential Twitter features that could benefit both everyday social media users and journalists.
Twitter Flock
For the lucky Twitter users with too many followers, or those who want to publish content to a select group of close friends, the Twitter Flock feature may just be the solution.
As spotted by developer Alessandro Paluzzi, Twitter Flock will allow you to share content privately with a group of up to 150 users.
However, Twitter has yet to confirm any details about this close friends feature, aside from telling The Verge that ‘Twitter Flock’ is just a placeholder name.
Twitter Articles
As discovered by respected feature sleuth Jane Manchun Wong, Twitter is potentially testing longer-form content for its platform in the form of Twitter Articles.
This follows on from Twitter’s pivot away from simple 140-character tweets, with both the adjustment to 280-characters and the adoption of Revue newsletters into the platform.
We don’t know much about what this feature – if it ever launches – would actually look like, although as a cautionary tale, Facebook’s blogging feature called Notes was quietly discontinued in 2020.
MA Interactive Journalism student, interested in gaming, tech, and crypto journalism, focusing on Audience Growth. Once attended a physical NFT art gallery opening.