Twitter is launching a new “Explore” section on its iOS and Android app to allow its users have Trends, Moments, Live Video and Search at one place. The new “Explore” tab will replace the earlier Moments tab, will bridge the between curated and live news and video features, and will allow users to find out what is happening on Twitter.
Twitter officially announced the change on Thursday, although it had been spotted by many Twitter users recently.
“Until today, you had to go to a few different places to find each of these experiences. As part of our continued efforts to make it easier to see what’s happening, we’re bringing all these together. Very soon, you’ll be able to find trends, Moments, search, and the best of live video, all within the new Explore tab,” said Angela Lam, Product Designer, at Twitter in blog post.
According to Twitter, the new changes have started rolling out to iOS users. Twitter app for Android smartphones will get the changes in coming weeks. The new feature will eventually come to Twitter’s web version, although that is currently not the priority for the social network.
Twitter users were earlier using the Moments feature to tell stories through a collection of tweets. This feature was launched in 2015. The feature used to take more time compared to Snapchat’s and Instagram’s Stories because users first had to search tweets that they wanted to collects.
When Twitter started testing the new Explore feature to replace the Moments tab, it found that users liked Explore better because of the ease to find news or what’s trending. And so Twitter was encouraged to launch the new feature for all users.
“Explore” tab will now be shifted to left of Notifications which will occupy the middle position in the bottom navigation bar. The middle position was earlier held by the Moments tab. “Trending Now,” “Today’s Moments,” and “Explore All” will be some new sections in the area.
Angela Lam said: “Nothing is going away—we’re just making it easier to find what you want. Explore will begin rolling out today on Twitter for iOS, and in the coming weeks on Twitter for Android. Make sure you have the latest version of your app to check it out. And of course, we will continue to listen to your feedback to make Explore even better, based on your thoughts and some ideas we have up our sleeve!”
About Twitter
Launched in 2006, Twitter is the online news and social networking service where allows users to post and read short messages called “tweets”. The 140-character tweets can be post and read by registered users, but unregistered users can only read these messages. Twitter Inc, has over 25 offices globally and is headquartered in San Francisco.
Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, and after its launch, the service quickly gained popularity worldwide. Twitter had over 100 million users in 2012 who were posing 340 million tweets daily. By next year, Twitter had become one of the ten most-visited websites.
In February 2015, Twitter announced acquisition of Niche, an ad network for social media stars. It then acquired Periscope (an app which allows live streaming of video) and then TellApart (a commerce ads tech firm). However, later it became apparent that Twitter’s had stalled.
By March 2016, Twitter had more than 310 million monthly active users.
