Los Angeles — Popular micro-blogging outfit Twitter is admired by its dedicated users for the focused messaging power inherent in the short bursts of text and tags they can fire off faster than is possible on other social media platforms. Now, in attempt to make its service more accommodating less seasoned users, Twitter made an interesting tweak for verified accounts, which now lets you choose to see only the Tweets put out by that user, rather than all mixed in with replies to the account.
What do Steve Martin, Salman Rushdie, and Nascar all have in common? A new special attribute on their Twitter accounts that empower followers decide whether to see their tweet conversations.
This unique approach lets users get a clean stream of just tweets made ‘out to the public’ from the account, rather than conversations back and forth of the musicians, actors, athletes, and brands they follow, with the conversation function turned off (see sample screenshot below).
Twitter announced yesterday that on certain verified accounts of well-known musicians, actors, athletes, and brands, users can determine whether to see back-and-forth exchanges. The way it works is by clicking “all” above the Tweets timeline on the user’s profile page to see full conversations or by clicking “no replies” to see only original tweets.
“This simplified profile, which we are rolling out to verified accounts over the coming weeks, makes it easier to understand what kind of content the user shares on Twitter, and what Tweets you will see if you follow them,” Twitter’s product team director Michael Sippey wrote in a blog post. “And you can also continue to discover great moments on Twitter like when @MollyRingwald and @SalmanRushdie discussed following one another on Twitter.”
Steve Martin’s Twitter profile with and without the see “all” toggle on. (Credit: Twitter)
This streamlined profile, which we are introducing to verified accounts over the coming weeks, makes it easier to understand what kind of content the user shares on Twitter, and what Tweets you will see if you follow them, the company noted.
The uncomplicated tweet timeline will be the default setting when it is unveiled across the user base, Twitter’s Sippey wrote in a blog post announcing the change. The company will be adding the option to switch from the simplified view to the traditional Twitter view to verified accounts over the next several weeks, he added.
Hence, this will be a cleaner, crisper experience for brands and celebrities, but it does scrub the profile view free of some of the conversational flavor of Twitter. Remember that you are unlikely to see any of those conversations by default in your own stream as these accounts are likely to be ones with large amounts of followers, ones that follow the brand but that you may not follow.
The concept is to let followers of popular Twitter users an easy line to original comments without having to wade through a tweeter’s various replies to other tweets, which can often be incomprehensible unless you are committed to tracking a multi-user conversation through its many twists and turns on the micro-blogging site.
Nevertheless, Twitter has been on a tinkering binge of late. Earlier this month, the San Francisco startup unveiled a new company logo and last week, Twitter introduced new embedded media capabilities in the expanded tweet function for a roster of media partners.