Fleets to Areas to Audio tweets: All the brand new Twitter options you might need missed

Here's a look at all of the recently launched features by Twitter. (Image: Reuters)

Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms currently available. It competes against Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, just to name a few. And to keep its audience tweeting, it keeps on rolling out new feature, though we are yet to get an edit button. While that wait will likely continue for eternity, here is a look at all of the features Twitter recently launched on its platform.

Tackling misinformation

Earlier this year, Twitter launched a new feature to tackle misleading information on the platform. This would warn users who attempt to retweet content that had already been flagged with a warning label that the content was disputed. It is now expanding on that feature and will push out the same warning when users attempt to like content that has been similarly designated.

The company in a tweet said that this feature helped them decrease quote tweets of the misleading information by 29 percent. Twitter will bring similar speed bumps designed to slow users’ propensity to “like” tweets containing falsehoods.

Social well being

Twitter has been working on ensuring the social well being of its users and latest feature to help with this is around graphic images in direct messages (DM). This feature will let users decide whether they want to view or filter graphic media content sent to them via direct messages. Users will now get a warning about the graphic content when they receive such a DM. The prompt will let them decide if they want to see the media or not, instead of the graphic content just showing up without any warning.

Voice-based DMs

Twitter is currently testing out its voice-based DMs feature in Brazil. Other regions currently only have the ability to send text messages, GIFs, and images using Twitter’s direct messages feature. The new voice-based DMs feature has a simple interface and allows users to send messages to each other in a similar fashion to voice notes on WhatsApp. The DMs will get a play/pause button and will blend into the original UI.

Quote tweet button (Retweet with Comments)

In a recent design layout change, Twitter provided users with direct access to quote tweets under their tweets. Earlier users had to tap on the retweet button to get the quote tweet option. Now they can simply tap on the quote tweet option. This new button was earlier called ‘Retweet with Comments’. The name has now changed to ‘Quote Tweet’.

Suggested Topic Tweets

Twitter recently launched its Topics feature and soon after announced that it will show suggested Topic Tweets on user timelines. This feature reflects tailored topic tweets that would interest users on their home timeline. Twitter says this will easier for its users to find, follow and talk about their interests.

Voice tweets

In June this year, Twitter rolled out a feature that allowed its users to send out voice messages via tweets complemented by a short text-based message. This feature has currently only been rolled out to iOS users. Users creating a tweet on an iPhone will now see a button to add voice right next to the one used to add photos. The voice message can only be 140 seconds long and can be added media attached inside of the tweet.

You can Tweet a Tweet. But now you can Tweet your voice!

Rolling out today on iOS, you can now record and Tweet with audio. pic.twitter.com/jezRmh1dkD

— Twitter (@Twitter) June 17, 2020

Read the article before retweeting

Twitter now prompts users to read an article attached to a tweet that they are trying to retweet. This feature is being introduced because sometimes the headline does not relay the whole story and can be misinterpreted. In a tweet, it stated that this feature will help “improve the health of a conversation as it gets started.” The feature was rolled out at the time of the US elections.

Twitter Fleets

Fleets are Twitter’s attempt at Stories, which started with Snapchat and are now available in almost all social media platforms. Fleets are located on the top of the timeline and are automatically deleted after 24 hours. Users posting Fleets need to follow a few rules, which include a 280 character limit, no retweets or likes, replies via DMs.

Twitter Spaces

Twitter Spaces is a voice chatroom feature that the company is currently testing out. It will help people create a safe space for intimate conversations in public. With the help of this feature, users can add multiple participants. Users will be able to see who is a part of the room and who is talking at any given time. They can also request to be a part of the conversation.

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