It’s a day of launches for social media giant Twitter as the company sees it jumping out some innovative changes in the app recently.
For starters, the platform is rolling out its Close Friends feature to users worldwide starting today. This will allow users to post tweets to a select number of users in the app.
The firm first began experimenting with the launch, which many say is remarkably similar in design and function to the functionality of Instagram’s best friend. Tests began in May and now, things seem to be going according to plan as the global launch has begun.
In total, users are given the opportunity to include 150 people in their inner circle. But for now, they are only allowed to draw one circle. There are no restrictions on who users can include in this feature, so even Beyonce or Ronaldo can be part of your circle if you want. But remember, most celebrities ignore tweets, so hopefully you don’t have too many expectations there.
Everyone who is part of your circle will see a unique green badge located under the tweets tab. This shows how the post is only for a select number of viewers in that close friend group and not to appear across a user’s public timeline.
As Twitter mentioned in their recent post, only a user can determine who is present in their circle. Therefore, those who are added will be given the opportunity to respond, view and engage with the displayed content.
Also, users will not receive any form of alert or notification whenever someone adds or deletes them through the Circle. At the same time, Twitter prohibits people from leaving any particular circle. Therefore, the only way out is to block that individual who added you to the circle. This way, you will no longer be part of the circle.
While Twitter has yet to go public about it, this new Circle feature is another unique way the app hopes to prevent people from closing their profiles. At the same time, it gives them a certain degree of privacy when they want to share certain posts with a limited audience.
Similar to tweets present in locked profiles, users in a circle cannot retweet posts present within the same circle. But after the option, users will have a chance to post a tweet to their circle, their public timeline or any form of community they happen to be a part of.
The news comes as the platform has just revamped the app’s audio tab so it can include more than two million podcasts using the Live Spaces feature.
This new redesign may include personalized stations for different topics such as news, lifestyle, movies and more. This will not only offer live audio programs but also recorded sessions.
All the launches aside, Twitter was really touched when a shocking report from whistleblower Pelter Zatiko revealed some interesting findings about the company’s inner workings. He accused the company of gross negligence and deficiencies that are clear threats to national security.
There were even allegations of fine-tuning the metric to mask the true number of bots seen on the app. Just this morning, Elon Musk was seen sending a final termination letter via his legal team on Twitter terminating their acquisition deal, citing these claims.
On the other hand, Twitter is also rolling out another new Pinned Replies feature for select users. The news comes thanks to us Chris Messina.
The feature is designed to allow users to put any reply they like on their tweet using the action menu.
Read more: Twitter’s attempt to make more money from adult content suspended due to major glitches
