As well as tailored trends, today sees the rolling out of an update to expanded tweets on Twitter. The previous (or existing, depending on if you’ve got the update yet) version of expanded tweets would show videos from YouTube and photographs from Instagram. But the new update allows users to see much more interactive content.
Tweets viewed on both a desktop or a mobile device will now be able to show content such as news stories, video galleries and audio clips. If for example a user expands a tweet containing a news article from one of Twitter’s partner sites (this group is growing) then they will see a headline, introduction and sometimes there will be a link to the author’s Twitter account.
Speaking to Mashable, Twitter’s Rob Weeks said: “People can preview articles from news sources like The New York Times, see images from websites like WWE and play dynamic content from broadcasters like BET.”
When it comes to partners such as Soundcloud, audio clips will appear in the expanded tweets. Other partner websites announced are The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Der Spiegel Online, WWE, Buzzfeed, TMZ, BET’s 106 & Park, Lifetime, Dailymotion.
Initial reactions to this news have been positive, although there are some that fear Twitter is moving too far away from what made it popular in the first place – the brief and succinct nature of the updates.
Do you have an opinion? Does this latest update make Twitter more enjoyable due to the richer content, or does this detract from the simplicity enticed you to use the network in the first place? Please leave a comment below.