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Twitter’s new ‘Connect’ tab helps you discover the best accounts to follow

By Christian de Looper May 3, 2016

twitter connect tab launch — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Twitter wants you to follow more accounts, and in order to help you figure out exactly which ones you want to follow, the company has launched a new tab called Connect. The tab will sit amongst the other tabs at the top of your display, and once clicked you’ll find a mix of info based on where you’re located, who you already follow, and major events.

The Connect tab, which is available in both the iOS and Android apps, can also recommend accounts to you by pulling from your contacts. This was something Twitter did before, but the function has now become a lot more accessible through the new tab. According to Twitter, the tab will change over time, and will refine its recommendations as your activity on Twitter evolves.

If you’re someone who needs to be convinced, Twitter has you covered too. Not only will it recommend accounts, but it will also tell you why it thinks you should follow particular accounts. The different types of recommendations are organized into sections within the tab, including “Trending Now,” “Popular Near You,” and so on. At the bottom of the tab, Twitter will recommend its own accounts.

Of course, this isn’t the first “Connect” tab we’ve seen on Twitter — the Notifications tab used to be called Connect. This version of the tab, however, actually wants to help you connect with accounts, not just see what’s already happened.

The Connect tab makes sense — Twitter has been struggling to recruit new users, and is currently sitting at 310 million active accounts, up only 5 million from the 305 million accounts it reported for the fourth quarter of 2015. By making it easier for people to find new accounts to follow, Twitter hopes to increase user engagement with the network, which could lead to more invitations to join Twitter and eventually to a faster growing network.

The new feature is rolling out to Android and iOS starting today, so if you don’t see it yet you should get it in the near future.

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Christian de Looper

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Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…

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