Twitter wants users to see news events before anything else
What's the story
Twitter is testing its 'Happening Now' feature' by letting users see the biggest news events of the day at the top of their timelines. The Happening Now interface, which aims at showing users current topics before anything else, was first incorporated into Twitter in October 2017. Here are the details.
Context
This is an extension of Twitter's Happening Now feature
Under this feature, users see a Happening Now label at the top of their timelines that shows them all current topics they might be interested in. When users click on a news card, they are taken to a series of tweets about that particular event. Currently, the news items under the Happening Now label and the list of related tweets, both are curated manually.
Details
Want to make it easier to find relevant news: Twitter
This is the first major step Twitter has taken to expand the feature to breaking news, as it was previously only limited to sports events. Product VP Keith Coleman said, "People come to Twitter to see and talk about what's happening. We're working on ways to make it easier for everyone to find relevant news and the surrounding conversation."
Information
The feature is only available to select users
If the test run of the Happening Now feature comes out to be successful, Twitter may run it by algorithms rather than human oversight in the future. For now, the feature to spot news highlights is only visible to select iOS and Android users.
Background
Twitter steadily moving towards being a news destination
This is in line with Twitter primarily wanting to be a news destination. Throughout the years, the micro-blogging platform has undergone several redesigns and algorithm tweaks to seamlessly provide users with the latest information. It had earlier launched the Moments feature, which allows users to club tweets and visual elements to summarize an event in a story format.