Twitter’s user interface is set to get a major overhaul, according to updates tweeted by CEO Elon Musk. In a tweet, the billionaire listed a series of changes that will soon be coming to the micro-blogging site, including that which he claims is the first part of “a much larger UI overhaul.”
Easy swipe right/left to move between recommended vs followed tweets rolls out later this week.
First part of a much larger UI overhaul.
Bookmark button (de facto silent like) on Tweet details rolls out a week later.
Long form tweets early Feb.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2023
Musk’s tweet on early Sunday reveals that long-form tweets will arrive on the platform in early February, so Twitter still has a few weeks to work out all the kinks and ensure the chaos that was associated with the relaunch of Twitter Blue is avoided this time.
For those who missed it, after an initial launch, Twitter Blue had to be suspended for a while after an alarming number of fake accounts started to impersonate prominent personalities and big brands, which bred further chaos into Twitter’s platform. Following the ill-advised initial launch, Twitter later relaunched its subscription service in December.
Musk had, last year, hinted to bring changes to Twitter’s character limit, saying that the ability to attach long-form text to tweets (and thereby putting a stop to the “absurdity of notepad screenshots”).
The ability to allow users to post long-form text in their tweets has eluded users for a long time, forcing them to tweet within the character limit of 280. Changes to the character limit are overdue anyways – the social media company last increased its character count six years ago – doubling it from 140 to 280. It will be interesting to see how Musk – and Twitter – tackle concerns that bringing long-form texts to the platform will take away its uniqueness.
Musk’s tweet on Sunday revealed two more features that are slated to come to the micro-blogging site as part of its UI overhaul. The first is giving users the ability to easily swipe left or right to move between tweets that are recommended to them and tweets by people they follow. This feature rolls out to users later this week, though no specific date was mentioned.
The other feature is the Bookmark button (de facto silent like) on Tweet, which rolls out a week later.
