Twitter on Wednesday rolled out an update to its mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, as well as to its mobile site.
According to Twitter software engineer Nick Takayama, who announced the changes in a blog post, the update will make it “easier and faster” to discover new content on the microblogging site as it attempts to keep users engaged and increase the service’s stickiness.
So what tweaks and changes have been implemented? Well, for starters, a ‘top tweet’ will now show up at the top of the display for some searches, a tweet which Takayama promises will be “the best match for your query based on relevance and engagement.”
Beneath it there’ll be a ‘view more from this time’ link which, if you tap it, will do exactly what it says on the tin. Takayama suggests typing “four more years” or “deep challenge” into your Twitter search box to pull up an example of exactly what he’s talking about.
Twitter for iPhone and iPad gets a few additional updates – first up, when you tap on a link in your timeline, the next page will show the tweet at the bottom of the screen which, as Takayama puts it, “provides additional context to the page you’re viewing, and makes it easy for you to retweet, favorite or reply to the Tweet as you’re reading an article or watching a video.”
To get rid of the link (as well as the ‘reply’, ‘retweet’, ‘favorite’ and ‘more’ buttons) and free up the space on your screen, just tap anywhere on your device’s display above the tweet. You can also easily bring the tweet (and buttons) back into view by pulling up the tray icon located at the bottom of the screen.
Also, Takayama says developers have improved the autocomplete function, “so that when you search on Twitter or you’re composing a Tweet, you’ll see more hashtag, topic and username suggestions as you type.”
Finally, support for traditional Chinese has been added, while video upload via Mobypicture, Vodpod and Posterous is no longer supported.
