In a series of announcements by Twitter, they have revealed some explicit plans to improve Twitter conversations on the platform. Twitter conversations are an important element of Twitter. However, it’s often misunderstood because of the lack of clarity on how the conversations are structured on the platform.
The way Twitter conversations are organized has two main issues:
One, it’s hard to decipher the conversation when you’re a part of it and trying to make complete sense of it. With so many people joining the discussion and the conversation threads adding up, it gets really difficult to keep track of the conversation.
Second, when following a Twitter conversation, you do not know if you are reading tweets of your followers or the accounts you follow. The conversations appear the same to all.
However, to solve these basic issues, Twitter has launched its “conversations prototype testing program” called Twittr where it’s testing its improved conversations.
Let’s have a look at the top changes that Twitter plans to add in its improved conversations platform:
Formatting the Replies within Twitter conversations:
Replies in the improved Twitter conversations are nested within the original comment to make it clear that it’s a response to that statement and not to the entire thread. Unlike the current format in which replies are shown with a gray line, this method is more legible and easier to understand.
Changing Hierarchies to Make it more Personal:
In the improved conversations, Twitter aims to make the conversation more personal to you. Though the entire Twitter algorithm is designed to show content that’s important to you, Twittr aims to make it easier to understand. A blue line is shown next to the replies of the people you follow.
Conversations are more appealing aesthetically:
Making Twitter conversations look more like chat bubbles, the prototype has conversations in rounded bubbles. A contrasting background makes Twitter conversations easier to read compared to the original format.
Colors are also added to make it easier to follow the accounts involved in the conversation. People who you follow have a blue line while the original tweeter gets a gray line on all his tweets. This helps big time when reading through a conversation.
No more engagement metrics in Improved Twitter Conversations:
The prototype does not have any engagement icon while scrolling the conversation. Unlike the current Twitter format where each conversation has a chat, retweet, heart, and share icon, improved conversations do not have any. To check for any engagement in the prototype, you can click on the tweet and see the engagement metrics.
This is a great step as the focus remains on the conversations and not on the engagement received by each tweet.
Wrap Up:
All the features listed above are in the testing and have not been replicated to the original Twitter app. We got to wait a while and see what makes it to the app when Twitter launches improved conversations in their app. If you have any feedback for the Twitter team regarding the conversations, you can share it with them here.
Please note: Images in this article have been taken from an article posted by Tech Crunch.
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