Category: Twitter

Twitter has announced changes to their app and policies with the specific aim of cutting down on online abuse and bullying.  The changes will be rolling out over the course of the next few days and will bring a much enhanced mute feature.  This new feature will not only allow you to mute a particular account (which you can already do) but also allow you to block keywords and emoji too.  Notifications can also be muted after this update so if you are a victim of bullying or abuse on the service, you can quite literally turn that person or those words completely off in the app – and make your life a little bit easier.

Bullying and abuse has been a seemingly constant problem for Twitter.  Many individuals have left the service for a wide range of abuse issues from gender, orientation and political views.  Twitter in their update today stated that they know these changes won’t end it overnight but is working to try to cut it down.

Twitter has rolled out an update to their Android app that brings support for App Shortcuts.  It makes them just the latest to offer the new feature, something that is coming natively to Android Nougat 7.1 but can be experienced in other devices with launchers that support them.  Specific to Twitter, this updated version gives users the ability to send a new direct message, a new Tweet or to do a search of Twitter for specific content.  Once you select the shortcut you want, the app launches to that particular feature automatically.  This makes it super quick to send a new message or a new Tweet.

Twitter has rolled out a behind-the-scenes update to Direct Messages that now shows you the date and time when your message was read.  The update, which does not require any sort of app update on your Android devices, brings Direct Messages more in line with other Instant Messaging applications like Facebook Messenger.  Now, instead of wondering if your message has been read, you will see in the message thread the date (if it is not today) and time that the message was read.

After several months of testing on their alpha and beta builds, Twitter has released a Night Mode feature for their production version of their Android app.  The updated build is version 6.7.0 for those keeping score at home and will now allow for the darker viewing mode to make things a bit easier on your eyes in a low light situation.  The nice thing is you can toggle it on or off pretty easily.

The official Twitter app for Android is getting a major makeover today that brings a full-on Material Design makeover along with improvements in the overall user interface of the app.  The update is rolling out now in the Play Store so if you have it installed, you should be seeing the OTA update over the course of the next day or so.  Once you have it, you will have a vastly improved Twitter experience on your phone or your tablet.

Twitter and Spotify have teamed up to give you a pretty cool way to share music from the streaming service to your timeline.  Starting today, you can link to a Spotify track on your timeline and it will generate an audio card where your followers can listen to the track for 30 seconds.

You’ll want the volume up for this #SummertimeSoundtrack. Tweets with @Spotify tracks now play in your timeline! 🎧https://t.co/93avzwiQbs

— Twitter (@twitter) May 26, 2016

The idea, of course, is to attract your followers who aren’t using Spotify to join the service but it is also a great way to sample a song to decide if you want to purchase it.