To make its platform more user-friendly, Twitter is looking to introduce another ‘minute’ but ‘important’ design change. Very much like the replacement of the star button in favor of the universally understandable heart button, the company is now looking to change the ‘retweet’ button that we’ve come to know and love.
Twitter is currently testing the new version of the button, which corresponds more to sharing than retweeting, has been introduced to the mobile apps, reports TechCrunch. This new button replaces the previous ‘two arrows’ retweet button with a circular ‘sharing’ button with just a single arrow in the middle. It is also accompanied by a change in the reply button, which has now been replaced with a speech bubble that indicates that the micro-blogging is encouraging the users to carry out more conversation on the platform.
It is accompanied by a change in the reply button, which has now been replaced with a speech bubble that indicates that the micro-blogging platform is encouraging the users to carry out more conversation on the platform. Also, one might not notice this in the first go but the company has also nixed the ‘direct messaging’ icon from this quick response bar underneath the tweets.
Since Twitter is moving towards a more sharing focused approach with this replacement, thus, the expanse of choices provided on tapping the new button have also been increased. A Twitter user notified the publication of the change, which shows that tapping the share button now shows four option, namely Retweet, Quote Tweet, Send by Direct Message, and Share Tweet (on other platforms). This is making way for the usual sharing experience which the mass populous is more acquainted with.
The introduction of the new icons as a test feature to a handful of Twitter mobile users has been confirmed by the company. A spokesperson said the following:
We’re testing new icons on Tweets to evaluate how this impacts the way that people use Twitter.
This move from the social media behemoth comes on the heels of the stagnation of monthly active users on the platforms, which have been in the ballpark of 300+ million forever. Twitter is now looking to capture the interest of the general population (ahem! who uses Facebook!) and dilute the confusion to onboard them to the platform. And the next big important point — make them stay and use the platform. Thus, it is looking to adapt and take into consideration more acceptable lingo which conforms with the general consensus.
It is because of this very reason that the company is replacing the reply button — which it has been experimenting with for the last couple of months. Replacing it with the comment or speech bubble icon makes it more socially acceptable and induces the conversation rationale in the users on the platform. The DM button, which looked like a message, has also been clubbed with the sharing button for the same reason. Now, all we can do is wait for the outcome of the test to be positive (which is highly unlikely for power users) and then for a global rollout of the same.
