Twitter to add headlines and short descriptions to some Trends
In the last few months, Twitter has been adding a couple of features to its platform. Some of the features include labels on Tweets and accounts, curated pages and related articles on trends as well as enabling voice tweets.
Last week, the company announced it would begin pinning to the trend’s page a representative tweet that gives more insight about a trend.
On Tuesday, September 8, the company says it will begin writing headlines and descriptions for some of the trends. This will help users to better understand why something is showing up in the Explore tab or when they tap into a trend itself.
More trend updates, even more context. We’ll now add improved headlines and short descriptions to some Trends, so you can get the rundown on why something’s trending when you’re in the Explore tab or you tap into a Trend. https://t.co/PW2PiYYsQG pic.twitter.com/oOgByMJLME
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 8, 2020
With this feature, you wouldn’t need to scroll through to understand what’s trending immediately and why. It will provide straightforward, clearly sourced context around why something is trending. For example, if #Wizkid is trending, Twitter will give a short summary why the celebrity is trending with a headline.
According to a blog post published on its blog a combination of algorithms and Twitter’s curation team will determine if a Tweet represents a trend by evaluating if the Tweet is very reflective of the trend and popular.
The algorithms are said to be designed in order to identify representative Tweets that aren’t potentially abusive, spam, or posted by accounts trying to take advantage of our system. Representative Tweets on trends can be found on Twitter for iOS and Android now but not yet available on twitter.com soon.
For now, representative Tweets and descriptions on trends will be available in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Descriptions on trends and will be found on twitter.com and Twitter for iOS and Android.
It’s not certain when the feature will be available in Africa. However, when accessible, it will be easier to immediately see why a particular topic is trending rather than see promotional ads when the trend is clicked on.
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