SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter is stepping up innovation to enhance the platform’s offer in the face of tough competition. After audio, the social network is now focusing on the written word, announcing the launch of a new option for posting longer texts. So, is Twitter becoming a next-generation blogging tool?
Debate and discussion are going strong on Twitter, with many users rushing to the social network to share their opinions, criticisms or ideas ― and all in 280 characters. But this limit sometimes proves to be problematic when it comes to complex topics.
And while Twitter has popularised the trend for “threads” to facilitate the posting of longer stories, the platform seems keen to take the concept further.
Twitter has now announced that it is rolling out a new “Notes” option, launched as a test for some time among a handful of users. It allows users to post longer texts as attachments to their tweets.
The function, accessible via a new “Write” tab, is similar to the tools present in the back-end of a blog composer, AFP reported.
Users can customise their “header,” the banner at the top of the page, by adding an image of their choice and cropping it. In the body of the text, users can insert photos, as well as links and, of course, tweets.
And forget the 280-character limit for regular tweets. Here, titles can be up to 100 characters long while the body text can be up to 2,500 words.
In addition to the length of the text, the other big change concerns post-publication editing. Unlike tweets, users will be able to go back to their “Notes” file to edit it ― a major advantage that many Twitter users have been requesting for a long time.
Plus, users will not need to have a Twitter account to view these longer musings. Each blog post will be accessible via a unique URL ― good way to reach more users and popularise the option.
The platform has nevertheless specified that the “Notes” function will not benefit from an “algorithm boost” and will not take priority over regular tweets.
Users will be able to share their “Notes” text via their account with a preview of their text.
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