This July, it was discovered that Twitter was testing a feature that would let users tag posts with more expressions – that is, add status updates to them – in order to provide more context for their followers. And while customizable status updates are not on the table (yet), the list of status options just got expanded.
Now, users can choose to tag their posts with options beyond “Spoiler alert,” “AMA,” “Shower Thoughts,” and “Hot Take” to include more and specific ones such as “Watching rugby,” “To whom it may concern,” “Dear diary,” “Don’t @ me,” “Tweeting it into existence” or “That’s it, that’s the Tweet.”
According to app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who first noted the expansion of Twitter’s list of potential status updates, the icons look more 3D than the typical Twemojis. Twitter confirmed the development on Monday, adding that the expanded list of status updates is already being rolled out to testers of the feature.
This feature sounds a lot like something you’d see on Facebook – the Meta-owned platform lets you add what you’re feeling or what activity you’re engaged in into your status update. It also sounds a lot like the “moods” on Myspace, which offers over a hundred options for users to express what they’re feeling while posting status updates on the platform. Undoubtedly, Twitter’s offering is a similar one, and yet another instance of social networking sites copying features from others (which is something that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others have done several times) to gain an edge in the competition.
For now, a select group of users in the US has the option to add status to their posts on the popular micro-blogging site, and with the update, Twitter informed that it would be roping in users in Australia as well. A spokesperson for Twitter told that with the update, a “majority of people in Australia” will now be able to use the feature.
However, what’s surprising is that it is conspicuously absent among the list of “early access” features that Twitter’s paid subscriber base has access to. Twitter’s paid offering – Twitter Blue – promises to provide users with exclusive access to premium features in exchange for a monthly subscription. Twitter Status, for now, remains elusive to them, although they will have access to other features such as the highly-anticipated Edit Tweet option and NFT profile pictures.
Twitter’s spokesperson defended the company’s decision by saying that it would be offering some of its experiments to subscribers while others will be tested with the broader public.
