Twitter’s been testing this out for a while now and today, it has finally launched its anticipated ‘Notes’ option on select user profiles, providing them with a simple and integrated way to attach longer text elements to their Tweets.
The Notes UI is fairly basic, with all the regular elements of a blog post composer, including the ability to add header images, insert text-embedded images and links, and a streamlined option to add in Tweets. A rather varied array of extra functions if you ask us, which could help improve Tweet engagement.
Taking Down Notes
Once published, Notes will appear as a Twitter card, linking users through to the full post. Check out this example shared by Matt Navarra. Simply tap through and you’ll be taken to the full text. Note that titles are limited to only 100 characters, with a Note’s body up to 2500 words, which is loads more room than your average Tweet.
Unlike Tweets, Note writers will be able to edit their notes even after publishing them, with an ‘Edited’ label added to the top of the note. It sounds very simple – imagine having an ‘Edited’ label on top of actual Tweets.
Lastly, notes will also have unique URLs which people can navigate to from outside of Twitter, ‘whether or not they are logged in to Twitter, and even if they do not have a Twitter account’. This should facilitate broader sharing activity, making it a more valuable long-form option. Maybe.
Twitter has tried for years to integrate its own blogging platform to cater to users who end up either Tweeting long threads or adding screenshots of text to their Tweets. True enough, back in 2016, then-CEO Jack Dorsey explained that the company was looking at potential options to enable longer posts within Tweets. Jack used a screenshot of text to communicate his logic.
Adding its native ‘Threads’ option provided additional capacity on this front, while it was also able to purchase the newsletter platform Revue last year, which now prompts users to try if they want to post longer text updates. Notes will expand upon the same, but it remains to be seen whether or not users would really want to post longer content of this type directly on Twitter or if they’re better off directing users to their own websites, where they have more control.
The Wrap
Given the external nature of blog-type content and the implications brought about by Apple’s ATT update, the concept of Notes does seem a bit dated, if not ill-timed. However, it could still provide new promotional opportunities. It’ll also be interesting to see if Twitter users are onboard reading longer form native Tweet blogs, which is kind of the real story in the end.
Right now, Twitter says that Notes won’t see an algorithmic boost yet and won’t get any sort of priority over regular Tweets. So, the value doesn’t seem too big, but hopefully, Twitter shares more user data soon.
Twitter’s Notes option will be made available to a selected group of writers, as chosen by Twitter, to begin with.
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