Twitter has quietly rolled out an exclusive feature for Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus users. A new update for the official Twitter iOS app adds 3D Touch integration.
Until now, 3D Touch functionality on the Twitter app was limited to quick actions on the home screen. With the update installed, users with the latest iPhone models can now bring up 3D Touch peek and pop previews for Twitter profiles and links.
The new functions are a handy way to quickly examine any media on the Twitter app without clicking through to it. The 3D Touch peek preview works when you press on profiles, images, and external links, reports MacStories. By swiping a peek upwards, you’ll have access to all the regular options to share a tweet, including direct messaging and the standard iOS extensions.
Additionally, in the case of profile peeks, the same upwards swipe action will give you options to either mute, block, or report the selected user. The new functionality is thus far relegated to tweets in your timelines, and does not work in the Notifications tab.
Nonetheless, it should make for a faster browsing experience for iPhone 6S and 6S Plus users by eliminating pesky loading times for certain types of media. The former have become an important part of the Twitter experience, as the app has increasingly becomes a place for users to access news. A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that the majority of U.S. adults now access news via social media. Twitter came in third place on the report in terms of the amount of its users that get news on the platform. Nobody realizes this more than Twitter itself, which recently changed its iTunes App Store category to from “social networking” to “news.”
