Skip to main content

Twitter tests the waters for breaking news push notifications

Twitter’s success is tied to its ability to facilitate real-time conversations, and that includes conversations around breaking news. That’s why Facebook is falling all over itself trying to get people to use Facebook like they use Twitter. It’s one of the reasons why Twitter just slayed its IPO. Real time talk is one of the aces up Twitter’s sleeve, and breaking news generates real time talk. So it’s no surprise that the micro-blogging service is experimenting with breaking news alerts sent to users through push notifications — it’s a way for the network to integrate with news services and make sure accurate reporting gets surfaced. Buzzfeed reports that Twitter tested a breaking news push notification service following a shooting near a school in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

Twitter users reported receiving a push notification for an AP Tweet linking to an article about the breaking news. These notifications didn’t just go to the 35,000 users who have signed up for Twitter’s breaking news service — they went to a seemingly random test group. And some people were more confused than pleased with the test: 

Recommended Videos

This isn’t the only recently foray into breaking news experiments from Twitter’s end — the company has also been experimenting with a bot called EventParrot meant to tweet breaking news notifications to its followers. 

While using randomly selected participants and highly-charged content like school shooting to test breaking news notifications isn’t the wisest move on Twitter’s part (they might’ve put more effort into first developing an algorithm determining whether news would be relevant, and then chosen a less incendiary news story) the basic concept is a smart one: If Twitter can find a way to deliver relevant, verified breaking news updates to its users, it will enhance the real-time conversation, potentially boost its status as an emergency warning provider, and perhaps eradicate some of the rumor-mongering that occurs when information flies fast and furious on the site. 

Kate Knibbs
Former Contributor
Kate Knibbs is a writer from Chicago. She is very happy that her borderline-unhealthy Internet habits are rewarded with a…
Twitter imposes tighter account security for politicians ahead of 2020 vote
Twitter symbol photo. Credits: Twitter official.

 

With the presidential election fast approaching, Twitter is tightening account security for prominent, election-related Twitter accounts in the U.S.

Read more
Twitter’s quote tweet feature lands for users globally
Twitter symbol photo. Credits: Twitter official.

 

Twitter is rolling out a new feature to its entire community that lets you quickly see quote tweets for any tweet that appears in your timeline.

Read more
Final tweet by Chadwick Boseman’s Twitter account breaks record for most likes
Black Panther

 

The final tweet on Chadwick Boseman's Twitter account has broken the record for most likes on the social media platform in less than 24 hours.

Read more