By now, we believe that most people are aware that Twitter currently has a lot going on, and not all of it is going smoothly. Among the various pressures created by tougher market conditions and the whole back-and-forth with Elon Musk and Co., Twitter has been struggling just to stay afloat, which it has done a remarkable job of considering all the odds. Despite all of these challenges, Twitter still manages to dish out updates now and then, with its most recent one being prompts that nudge you to share a Tweet instead of taking a screenshot.
Don’t Forget to Share!
Tweet screenshots are one of the most popular ways to share Tweets with friends or post them on your other Social Media accounts. But now, Twitter is showing users a new pop-up that asks them to share a Tweet instead of taking a screenshot of it. Users are seeing different kinds of pop-ups when they take a screenshot. Some users are seeing a ‘Copy Link’ button, while others are seeing a ‘Share Tweet’ button. Others, still, report seeing a dialog that contains both options. Check out the examples shared by the ever-updated Matt Navarra.
Some staff from TechCrunch even noticed these pop-ups on iOS when taking a screenshot of a Tweet. As per one of Twitter’s spokespeople:
“Millions of Tweets are shared from Twitter to other platforms every day. We want to make Tweets accessible to everyone, even when they leave our platform, and allow others an easy way back to the full conversation on Twitter. We’re currently testing this new prompt with a small group of people on iOS to let them know there are other ways they can share Tweets with their friends.”
Again, this could be one of Twitter’s tests to get more people to directly use its platform. You see, when people are consuming Tweets through screenshots, they’re not really interacting with any element of the app. Tweeter sees these kinds of interactions as a big loss because they’re primarily not “monetizable” – Twitter can’t show them ads or invite them to sign up.
Back in August, Twitter started an experiment that allowed some users to use Twitter without necessarily opening their own account – a trial, if you would. This allowed users to follow 50 accounts and reply to Tweets, but it didn’t allow them to use features like Retweeting or liking. In their Q2 2022 earning results back in July, Twitter said that its monetizable daily active users have increased 16.6% YoY to 237.8 million, which is good since the company had been trying various ways to make this count go up. This new initiative further plays into Twitter’s broader audience expansion.
The Wrap
Again, it’s a small update or add-on, but this is also one of the first times, if not the first, that a platform specifically asks users to share a post and not take a screencap of it. It makes sense, seeing as how any platform would want to be able to get as many direct users as possible since that would also directly translate to overall usage numbers. It’s still relatively early to tell whether or not this will make any sort of noticeable impact on Twitter usage and user numbers, but it is interesting and a bit exciting to watch what will happen. Besides, if you’re going to take an interest in Tweets, wouldn’t it be best to consume them directly from Twitter?
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