Twitter Update: App Replaces Moments With Explore Feature

Twitter introduced its Moments feature in late 2015. Now, at the start of 2017, it’s already getting bumped from the spotlight. The Moments section of the Twitter app is being replaced with a new tab called Explore.

The new section will be more of a catch-all for major happenings on Twitter. It condenses a number of features—including trending topics, the search feature, live video and the displaced Moments tab—under a single heading.

In a blog post about the new section, Twitter notes “nothing is going away” with the implementation of Explore. Instead, it’s designed to make things easier to find—an issue that has long plagued Twitter and made it difficult for the platform to court new users.

When users open the Explore menu, they will be presented with the trends and hashtags people are talking about most, with information like how many people are talking about it. The search bar sits atop the menu, with a large header just below it that features either live video or Moments that are generating a lot of buzz.

The Explore tab should start appearing for iOS users on Thursday and will make its way to Android devices in the coming weeks.

While it’s not going away, the move inside the Explore tab does mark a bit of a downgrade for Moments, which will lose the prominence of its own tab.

The feature has been gradually built out since being introduced as a curated list of tweets. Last year, Twitter granted brands and big names on the platform the ability to start making their own Moments before introducing the feature to all users.

The company has continued to tweak the feature in hopes of turning it into a success as strong as the Stories feature on Snapchat and Instagram. Recent reports indicate Twitter is testing out new layouts for Moments that could give the feature a format closer to the standard timeline look.

Twitter will also hope its Explore tab can draw new attention to live video, which the company has invested in heavily in recent months. The social network just finished its first season as a broadcaster for NFL games and has secured the streaming rights to MLB and NHL games and several sports shows produced specifically for the platform.

The real goal for Twitter is to finally get all of its features in front of an audience, a task that has been easier said than done thanks to stagnating user growth on the platform. It’s already too late for Vine, the six-second looping video service Twitter killed off earlier this year, but perhaps it’s not too late for the rest of Twitter’s features.