Twitter has confirmed it’s prepping the possible launch of a feature that will let you subscribe to a conversation, or thread, so you can keep track of contributions without having to like a comment or add a post yourself.
The news comes at the same time as the company released a new app called Twttr that will test new formats and designs for the main Twitter app in a bid to make the social media service more user-friendly.
The subscription feature was spotted in recent days by Jane Manchun Wong, a prominent app researcher who’s uncovered a number of new features undergoing testing on Twitter, as well as on other social media apps such as Instagram. The researcher tweeted a screenshot from Twitter that showed a button reading, “Subscribe to conversation,” with Wong commenting that the feature lets you subscribe so you can receive notifications of a new post on the thread without liking or replying to a post on the conversation, as you have to do at the present time.
Twitter later said that it is indeed testing the feature as part of its work “to make Twitter more conversational,” a strategy aimed at keeping users on the service for longer, giving the company more opportunities to serve up ads as people navigate the app.
This is part of our work to make Twitter more conversational https://t.co/jB4PWv3A04
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) March 15, 2019
This is just the latest of multiple efforts over the years by Twitter to make conversations on its platform more engaging. There’s no telling how the testing of this most recent feature is going, and whether it will ever be rolled out to the entire community, though with the trial ongoing, the company is probably yet to make a final decision.
Twttr app
In an effort to make the design of the app easier on the eyes, thereby offering a more pleasant Twitter experience for its community of some 320 million monthly users, the company also recently launched a new app called Twttr that invites regular users to test new features and offer feedback to its developer team.
Participants are also encouraged to share their experiences on the main Twitter app in the hope of generating a discussion among a broader base of users, giving the company even more insight into what people think of the test features.
“Twitter is exploring new ways to make the conversations you care about easier to read, understand, and join,” the company said when it launched the Twttr app.
