The burgeoning significance of social media in today’s world is not only unprecedented but also undeniable. The social giants of today- Facebook and Twitter are both in an armed race which seem to be converging into one another.
Twitter which began as a simple text-based stream of posts now fills user’s timelines with photos, videos and conversations while those eon Facebook boast hash tags and trending topics. The war is on. It is about being able to do multiple things at a place and giving your audience a clean friendly experience.
Much like Facebook’s news feed which displays posts and status updates in a ranked manner based on its algorithms that try to predict what will grab the user’s interest- Twitter has now rolled out a new feature: “While you were away.” It displays a recap of the best tweets that you might have missed and shows them on top of your timeline.
“Every time you open the Twitter app, you’ll see something great,” Twitter said as it announced the new feature as part of its Timeline improvements. Whether the users find it an improvement or not will depend on the algorithm powering this feature.
It can have a very unwelcome reception were it to become a dumping of information and viral videos or smart reports that crowds the space and turns into a pesky distraction from the otherwise clean interface.
On the other hand, if its algorithm really does hit the mark and users do find the posts appealing or interesting, it can actually prove to be the boost to user engagement it is expected to be. A search indicates that the app has rolled out to a significant number of users over the past few days and a grand roll out to the mass is expected.