In a way to encourage more users to use Twitter, the platform has been introducing several changes to ease its 140 character limit. To start with, ‘@username’ used for replies will not be included in the 140-character-limit. With this change, when a user is replying to a tweet, the text will appear right above the Tweet. This, the company says will help users see what people are saying rather than seeing lots of handles in a reply.
This update has been rolled on twitter.com as well as on iOS and Android for its mobile app versions. Users would have to update their apps to enable this new update. Earlier in Sep 2016, Twitter had excluded GIFs, polls, videos, photos and quote tweets from its 140 character limit.
Twitter introduces pre-roll ads on Periscope
The company has also introduced pre-roll ads on Periscope. With this, publishers and content creators can monetise their content while brands will have more real-estate to advertise on. The controls that brands have on Amplify program on Twitter will be extended on Periscope. Similar to Twitter, ads will appear on all videos. When consumers scroll through their timelines or search for content from specific publisher or creator, Periscope videos, both live and replay would start with an ad. The company notes that pre-roll ads are presently available to a select set of advertisers through the Amplify program. The company plans to open it out to other advertisers in the coming months.
Other developments with Twitter
- In February 2017, it introduced changes to its service to combat harassment this week,
- In November 2016, the company added new measures to help users deal with abuse, bullying and harassment on the platform, including an update to the ‘mute’ function, direct abuse reporting and retraining the Twitter support team to deal with reports faster.
- In the same month, the platform also introduced launched chat bot features, Quick Replies and Welcome Message through direct messages for businesses to aid customer service.
