Social Media

Twitter launches ‘Moments’ to follow Trending Stories


By Nixon Kanali, TechTrendsKE

It is just a day since Twitter announced its co-founder Jack Dorsey would now be the new Company’s CEO, and things did not just stop there. The Social Media site has rolled our a new feature dubbed ”Moments” to its worldwide audience to help them discover and follow trending topics in an instant.

This, the company says is a fulfilment of its Project Lighting, its long-promise to its users to follow events. Project Lighting is a hub that curates Tweets on the platform centered around events, news and trends. 

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Users can now be able to brouse Moments using a special tab within the Twitter app for iOS and Android, or they can as well do that directly on the Twitter website.

”Every day, people share hundreds of millions of Tweets. Among them are things you can’t experience anywhere but on Twitter: conversations between world leaders and celebrities, citizens reporting events as they happen, cultural memes, live commentary on the night’s big game, and many more. We know finding these only-on-Twitter moments can be a challenge, especially if you haven’t followed certain accounts” The company said in a blog post.

It further adds that Moments has now made it easier for users to follow and engage in the conversations event without having to follow certain accounts.

To access the list of Moments, just tap on the new lightning bolt tab on your phone and it will open a list of Moments that matter now.

”As new stories emerge throughout the day, we continue to update this list. Looking for more? You can also swipe through to topics including “Entertainment” and “Sports” to find more stories from the past few days” The company said.

So just how do you engage with Moments? When you click into a Moment, you’re taken to an introduction with a title and description, the next step is to start swiping to dive right into the story, with immersive full-bleed images and autoplaying videos, Vines, and GIFs. A single tap gives you a fuller view of the Tweet, which you can favorite, Retweet, and more. A double tap lets you instantly favorite the Tweet.The progress bar at the bottom indicates how much more each Moment has to offer. Swiping up or down dismisses the Moment and takes you back to the guide. At the end of a Moment, click the share button to Tweet your thoughts, and send it out to your followers.

Twitter says Moments are often updated as new information or great Tweets become available. Once you see a blue dot in the upper righthand corner of the image associated with the Moment, you will know a story has been updates since your last view. For stories that are updated frequently, like live sporting event, or an event, Twitter will give you an option to follow the Moment to know what is happening minute by minute. This will directly blend the Tweets into your timeline where you can be able to view and follow them.

As soon as the event you are following ends, the Tweets disappear too and your timeline goes back to the way it was.

To start, Twitter says it is introducing Moments to people in the US across Android, iPhone, and the desktop web. But as with Tweets, a Moment can be shared anywhere.

”If you discover a link to a Moment in a Tweet or DM, or embedded elsewhere, those of you outside the US can enjoy the same experience we’re rolling out today. And we’re hard at work to bring this same functionality to more places in the coming weeks and months” the company concluded.

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Nixon Kanali

Tech journalist based in Nairobi. I track and report on tech and African startups. Founder and Editor of TechTrends Media. Nixon is also the East African tech editor for Africa Business Communities. Send tips to nkanali@techtrendske.co.ke.

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