Twitter just announced a new feature coming soon to the social network, er, I mean news service. It’s called #Stickers, and provides a way for users to place decorative items on their photos. In a blog post, Twitter says sets of stickers will be rotated in and out, so there will always be something fresh and timely. Available stickers will include everything from emoji and props to specific items that can be used to “support a cause.”
Stickers can be placed anywhere on a photo and rotated or resized to your heart’s content. This is similar to, say, Snapchat, but what makes Twitter’s use of stickers unique is that each sticker on a photo is actually a hashtag (hence the official name of the feature, #Stickers). Tap on a sticker, and Twitter displays other photos recently tagged with that sticker. This may have some value when it comes to the aforementioned “support a cause” function, but the purpose of viewing every photo that somebody slapped a pair of cartoon sunglasses on (the chosen demonstration by Twitter) isn’t immediately clear.
Connect your photos to the world with a visual spin on hashtags: tap #Stickers to peel back a fun new way to search. pic.twitter.com/YVy7r53Nja
— Twitter (@twitter) June 27, 2016
The #Stickers feature provides a new way for users to interact on Twitter, and joins other photo-specific tools on the service, including filters, tags, cropping, and the recently introduced accessibility options. It’s also another feature that Twitter is likely hoping will increase the frequency of photo sharing on the service. Back in 2012, Twitter began displaying linked Instagram photos simply as text links instead of showing the images themselves, and even contacted users to urge them to share photos directly through Twitter for the best experience. Since then, Instagram has continued to grow at an incredible pace, surpassing Twitter’s own user base.
Although there is no firm ETA, Twitter says #Stickers will begin rolling out to users over the coming weeks on iOS, Android, and the web.
