Have you seen a new tab on your Twitter home page today? The moments tab has just been added for US users. If you are outside of the USA, you can still view a moment if someone has tweeted a link to one. Try @anthonynoto, the Twitter CFO if you would like to experience a twitter moment. He has quite a few in his feed. Moments is the launch of what was originally known as project lightning.
What is Twitter moments?
Twitter have created moments to try and help users to see what is going on in the world in terms of news or events. The feed will show up to date information and hopes to provide a reliable service for breaking news and real time events. Users often find that unless they follow people involved with an event, they will not know of something significant that may be of interest to them. Moments may help users to keep up to date with the latest happenings in the world and to find new people or areas of interest. Moments is meant to help users easily find “the best of twitter”
What does it look like?
The Twitter moments icon resembles a lightning bolt, as shown below.
You can see from the below screenshot, sourced from Twitter, that the moments icon should show in your app as a main tab. You can also get an idea of how moments will look and work on your device. You will see a list of topics and you can scroll down until you find something of interest. You can then swipe to see the relevant tweets, images and videos to give you a quick and effective overview. If you start to view a moment but decide it is not actually of interest, swipe down to go back to the main menu. You will have the chance to retweet or favourite either at the end of the slideshow or with a single tap for options during a session.
Who creates these moments?
At present, there are several large news type companies and specially chosen editors who will create moments. A few of the companies involved include Mashable, Fox News and Getty images. If a sports event is being covered for example, significant tweets from fans, the team or commentators could be captured as part of the moment.
Twitter is hoping to reach new users with this feature and to offer a new experience for lighter users in the hope of enticing them onto twitter more.