Twitter has announced a series of major updates to its platform as part of a strategy to increase its daily user base from the current 192 million to 315 million.
According to data from Sensor Tower, in app spending is expected to grow to $270 billion by the year 2025. App companies are scrambling to ensure they are able to get the biggest piece of this pie. Over the years Twitter has faced criticism for moving too slowly with the introduction of new features which has impacted its user growth and potential for revenue generation. These past few month Twitter has moved quickly in response to this criticism and has made significant progress on the product front. Below are five features Twitter has recently announced.
- Fleets
- Birdwatch
- Spaces
- Super Follow
- Communities
Let's learn more about Twitter's latest features:
1. Fleets & Birdwatch:
Before we get into the new announcements let's look back at the features that were introduced a while back. Fleet's is Twitter's version of stories and was made available to global audiences last year. In January Twitter also introduced Birdwatch in an effort to combat misinformation on the platform. The feature will allow regular users to identify information in Tweets that they believe is misleading and leave notes that provide valuable context. Thus, allowing the Twitter community to take a more active role in the fight against misinformation.
2. Twitter Spaces:
One of the most buzz worthy apps from the previous year is Clubhouse. CEO Paul Davidson in a recent town hall mentioned that Clubhouse currently has 10 million users. An impressive feat considering the platform had only 2 million users in January of 2021. To compete with the increasing popularity of the audio based platform, Twitter has announced its feature, Spaces. Similar to how Clubhouse works, Spaces will allow users to create groups where participants can communicate using audio. Once the 'spaces' are closed the audio is will no longer be available on the platform. Currently spaces is available to a limited number of user, however Twitter intends to make the feature available to larger audience over time.
See also: Twitter Expands Partnership with Google
3. Super Follow
Super Follow is Twitter first paid feature. It will allow creators to monetize their fan base. Users who have a "super follow subscription will be able to access gated content shared by the creator. The content could be in the form of a newsletter, additional videos, deal, access to specific communities or paywalled content on Twitter like Tweets, Fleets and Spaces. The feature will challenge existing platforms like Patreon and maybe even OnlyFans.
4. Twitter Communities
Similar to Facebook's communities, Twitter's feature will allow users with similar interests to network. It will empower creators that are using the super follow feature to organize their own private networks on Twitter's platform.
Along with the features mentioned above Twitter has also announced that it will be working on tools to auto-block trolls. How users respond to these new features on the platform is yet to be determined. It's clear however that Twitter is taking some big swings to remain relevant in an increasingly competitive social networking space.
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