There are some big changes coming to Twitter and it looks like the already simplistic social network is about to become even easier to use.
Twitter is notorious for its restrictions, but the 140-character limit is arguably why it has become so successful; it’s different and provides a quick way to use social media.
But the moment you use Twitter for multimedia, the restrictions get frustrating; attaching images, mentioning other users, using hashtags, and adding links to the tweet eats up the 140-character limit. However, things are set to change for the better.
This time around, the user experience will be improved significantly. Currently, tagging another user in the tweet will use up as many characters as their username contains, and a media attachment such as a picture takes up 24 characters. But once the new changes expected ‘over the comings months’ are made live, this will no longer be the case.
It’s not just character limits, you’ll also be able to quote yourself and retweet yourself; perhaps rivalling the Timehop service and providing an alternative to Facebook’s Memories – oh how I’ve always wanted something that will surely benefit my professional life…
These changes are in response to a reduction of tweets being posted and a reduction of new members singing up over the past few years. This coupled with Twitter’s active users beginning to level off means key changes to the way the service operates are essential.
Twitter has started to become a place rife with online abuse and trolls, although it’s not a unique issue to Twitter, in fact it’s something that has become a problem for every major social network. Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey told the BBC that dealing with the online abuse on the social network is one of five priorities for the company this year, “I don’t think the negativity and the abuse and harassment is unique to Twitter,”
“I think it’s an industry-wide, internet-wide issue that we all need to solve. And we did make it a priority for the company.” he said.
Speaking further on Twitter’s priorities, Dorsey mentioned one of them being live video, a feature that can be found on rival social network Facebook. As well as an added social function, it could increase Twitter’s live reporting capabilities – making it even more popular amongst journalists.
But will Twitter be doing anything that’ll encourage those of us working in and around business to get stuck in with it? No, not at all.
Fantastic.
