Twitter has introduced a new update which means that people can now tag no more than ten people and attach up to four photos without altering the trademark 140-character message limit. The update was announced yesterday and it already gathered different remarks regarding its similarity to both Instagram and Facebook. Adjusting notifications can be easily done and, while the new feature is only available on iPhone for now, it is coming soon on Android and desktop. Additionally, both new features will appear in embedded tweets.
News broke that people can now tag other people in their tweets and also attach up to four photos, all without changing Twitter’s 140-character message limit. Although the new features are only available on iPhone for now, Android smartphones are next in line to try out the social network’s new characteristics. The features represent a big step for Twitter and its view regarding the possibility of becoming an image-driven platform, but Instagram welcomed tagging one year ago within its community. The change was sketched by the company’s head of news, Vivian Schiller, who announced during the mediaXchange Newspaper Association of America conference in Denver that at-replies and hashtags are “arcane” and suggested that they could soon be moved into the service’s background. A few days later, Twitter’s most important update, namely the ability to tag up to ten people, became available.
At the same time, the company’s CEO Dick Costolo stated that pushing the social network’s language “scaffolding” to the background will automatically “increase high-quality interactions” and allure new users or strengthen relationships with the ones who own an account but are not yet convinced that this service is “indispensable.” Costolo also mentioned that Twitter became proactive in October 2013, when it introduced in-line social actions and timelines, so it comes as no surprise that a new update means people can now tag up to ten people and attach up to four photos without interfering with the 140-character message limit.
As good as the update may sound, the social network gives people the opportunity to “evade” the new features and not allow anyone to tag them. In order to prevent Twitter’s new characteristic from interfering with one’s privacy, going to “Settings” will solve the problem. The tagging could help the social network gain more ground in its users’ lives and check the app with regularity, especially since notifications start pouring when a person has been tagged.
Irrespective of Twitter’s plans, which have been rumored lately, namely a head-to-head confrontation with Instagram and Facebook, the social network is slowly advancing in its users’ lives and nudging them to see it as an “indispensable” app which connects them with the rest of the world, now at a more personal level. Judging from the statements of Costolo and Schiller, the disappearance of at-replies could follow in Facebook’s footsteps and be auto-replaced by formal Twitter names. Nonetheless, making the social network more user-friendly by bringing it closer to Instagram and Facebook has already begun and Twitter’s new features mean that people can now tag maximum ten friends and attach up to four photos in their tweets, without altering the 140-character message limit.
By Gabriela Motroc
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