Remember Twitter’s ‘Co-Tweets’ experiment launched last year? Don’t worry if you don’t, because the platform’s announcing that it’s fully closing the curtain on the initiative, effective immediately. Talk about short-lived. Then again, many of Twitter’s ‘quick-release’ experiments never did last long, considering they even made it to the live app.
Short-Lived
Launched in live testing just last July, Co-Tweets enabled users to collaborate on a single Tweet with another user, providing new opportunities for cross-promotional partnerships. The idea essentially stems from TikTok, where ‘Duets’ have become a popular option, which, in turn, has prompted the addition of similar functionality on both Facebook and Instagram. Co-Tweets were Twitter’s crack at trying out the same, but they were dumped along with other old initiatives amid ongoing re-organization under new Chief Twit Elon Musk.
“CoTweets will no longer be available to create starting Tuesday, 1/31. Already existing CoTweets will be viewable for one more month at which point they will revert to Retweets. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We appreciate the feedback we’ve been given about CoTweets and we’re still looking for ways to implement this feature moving forward. We thank you for trying CoTweets and we’ve enjoyed watching all of your creativity with this feature come to life!”
Given the option’s limited availability, in terms of both access and time, it doesn’t appear to be too big of a blow for Twitter to cop. However, it is another shift within the whole ‘Twitter 2.0’ push, which is likely reflective of the app’s reduced staff and labor capacity. Within this, Twitter will need to refine its focus on fewer projects, and several experimental features, like newsletters and podcast display in the Audio tab, have already been depreciated.
The Wrap
However, it’s not all been downhill for Twitter. It was able to add new features such as view counts and Bookmarks, along with a series of new Twitter Blue badges, so maybe it’s less a question of capacity and more of Elon’s specific focus. Either way, Co-Tweets, regardless of their impact (if any), are primarily out. Those with Co-Tweets should expect their posts to revert to regular re-Tweets soon. You win some, you lose some, right? Well, lately, at least in Twitter’s case, it wins some but loses more. If things don’t turn around for the app soon, it might be the next one on the way out.
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