Twitter is experimenting with a bunch of new features to help users better navigate the site, follow conversations, and engage with other users. Tech Times reported previously about most of these, but there's a new one — swiping gestures.
The latest version of twttr, the company's invite-only testing grounds for experiments, introduces swiping gestures, specifically in conversations to like a tweet. Now, when a user swipes on a tweet, a heart appears over it to indicate they're "liking" it. This perhaps is Twitter's version of double-tapping on Instagram.
Twitter Toys With Swiping Gestures
Swiping is not necessarily new to twttr as the first major build of the app had an early iteration of the gesture — sort of. There, engagement buttons were tucked away and only appeared when the user tapped on a tweet. That method received mixed reviews, according to Twitter's director of product management Sara Haider, adding that while it was easier to focus without engagement buttons, it was also harder to like tweets since that required an extra tap.
Adding a swiping gesture to remedy this makes plenty of sense: it's a common gesture already implemented in a wide range of apps, which means there's practically no learning curve to go through. TechCrunch notes that swiping will become a much bigger part of Twitter moving forward.
Other Improvements
Apart from swiping gestures, Twitter is also experimenting with new "author" and "mentioned" labels within conversations, which Tech Times previously reported. "Lights Out," a true black Dark Mode that's much darker than the current option is also one of the many updates Twitter continues to work on.
Features such as nesting tweet replies and hiding engagement, says Haider, intend to "make conversations easier to understand." Although there were mixed reviews initially, she says the majority of those who provided feedback preferred twttr over the main Twitter app.
"We're excited about this — it shows us that we're on the right path but still have more work to do before launching to everyone." From the sound of that, it seems Twitter could roll out some of these new features more broadly down the line.
Where's The Edit Button?
Twitter has yet to roll out an "edit" button for tweets, which is perhaps the most requested of all nonexistent options on the platform. CEO Jack Dorsey has hinted on a "timed" edit button, which allows the user to go back and revise but within a time limit.
