For the longest time, one of Twitter’s biggest challenges, as well as being one of its key goals, is how it can best enable people to share more expansive thoughts and comments on the app, which people currently do by adding ‘Notes’ screenshots to their Tweets.
Tweeeeet
One of Twitter’s defining traits was that it gave people the ability to post quick status updates in real-time. Originally, the main thing about Twitter, when it was first introduced, was that people would be able to ‘Tweet’ – that is to post short-form texts – as opposed to what was then the standard ‘Status Update’. Over time, Tweeting evolved, incorporating elements beyond mere text, such as being able to embed external website links, photos, and even videos. However, it would seem that people now find the actual ‘Tweet’ length to be rather “short”.
True enough, back in 2016, when Jack Dorsey was still CEO, it was explained that Twitter was looking at potential options to enable longer Tweets, leading to the eventual expansion of Tweets to 280 characters. Twitter kept some of the ideas from this front and added in its ‘Threads’ option as a new alternative. Twitter also acquired the newsletter platform Revue early in 2021, which it now prompts users to try out, especially those that are looking for ways to post longer text updates.
Though nothing concrete has been revealed yet, a new Tweet test was spotted by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong. Looking at it closely, you’ll notice that the window is labeled as ‘Articles’, which hints at the idea that users might one day be able to create entire blog posts on Twitter, which, of course, would likely be shareable, in one way or another, via Tweet.
How that would work is presently unclear, but what is clear is that Twitter is developing a new content option. As explained by one Twitter spokesperson:
“We’re always looking into new ways to help people start and engage in conversations on Twitter. We’ll share more about our work here soon.”
Though a somewhat generic response, a statement at least cements the thought that something is coming, which will be interesting to see if Twitter does provide an option to replace longer text screenshots using an option that’s more concise and streamlined than Threads.
The Wrap
Some are already speculating that if such an option was to go live, it’d most likely be gated behind a Twitter Blue subscription, or at least start that way. The true utility of this lies in how it would work, which, as of now, cannot be determined. The good thing about this is that Twitter can also tap into that unknown area, experimenting with ways on how they can tie in this new option into, say, their Revue newsletter, or how they can integrate it to help Tweet creators generate more referral traffic. We’ll just have to wait and see what CEO Parag Agrawal has lined up, as he seems to fancy the concept.
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