Twitter was an important tool for many Filipinos in 2020. The past year was also a period when more people used the microblogging site than ever before—global users grew 29% to 187 million daily active users, year-on-year, driven by conversations about current events and product improvements.
Thus, Twitter said it fulfilled its purpose more, which is to serve the public conversation to help people learn, solve problems, and realize that “we are all in this together.” As we look back to the year that was, check out this list of all the new and popular features rolled out by Twitter that helped make more users spark, join, and follow online conversations.
1. Send a Fleet, a.k.a. ‘disappearing post.’
‘Fleets’ was a new feature introduced in 2020 for those who feel tweets are intimidatingly public and permanent. Each Fleet disappears in 24 hours so that more users can feel no pressure and get more comfortable joining public conversations. It doesn’t get likes, RTs, and public replies.
2. Tweet your voice.
When 280 characters are not enough and there are conversational nuances lost in translation, this is the new feature to use. Tweet Your Voice to add more human touch to the way you use Twitter. This new feature is available on Twitter for iOS, though all users can listen to voice Tweets.
3. Control who can join your conversation.
Twitter launched new settings to provide users with more control over the conversations they start by getting the power to choose who can reply so they won’t get unwanted replies in meaningful conversations. The three options to choose are: everyone, only people you follow, and only people you mention. So far, about 43 million Tweets were seen and created using this conversation setting; over half of those use the ‘people I know’ option.
4. Follow over 5,000 topics.
2020 was also the year Twitter launched Topics. Now, everyone can see the most relevant and interesting Tweets about what they care about and let the conversation come to them with just a single tap. Twitter users can now follow more than 5,000 topics with Topics added every single week—ranging from Astrology to Stocks. So far, about 70 million accounts are following Topics. The most followed Topics are Soccer, Rap, and Food.
5. See the full conversation with Quote Tweets.
Tweets about a Tweet were made easier in 2020 when Twitter started showing all Quote Tweets in the users’ own timelines in the Tweet detail view. This feature is initially available on Twitter for iOS and Android as well as twitter.com worldwide.
6. Read before Retweeting.
In 2020, Twitter started encouraging users to read an article before tweeting about it. With the reminders, users who Retweet articles now open those 33% more often before sharing.
Twitter invites everyone to Tweet and Fleet away in 2021.
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