Twitter Testing New Conversation Feature, Might Roll Out 2020

Twitter is known as one of the most popular microblogging sites on the internet. While tweets or posts are limited to a certain number of characters to help make it easy for users to digest, it's a fact that it's not that easy to keep track of certain conversations, most especially when people make a lot of replies.

Twitter is now testing a feature that will help users keep track of their Twitter conversations, TechCrunch reported. The feature, which involves threading replies together and using visual cues to determine who started the conversation, is being tested on the “twttr” prototype app, and has been seen on Twitter.com.

Conversation trees

According to reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong (who spotted the feature in Twitter), the Twitter Web App is testing a conversation tree that resembles the one used in Reddit. Those who use the popular forum know that the conversation trees make it easier for users to keep track of comments, posts, questions and responses.

Wong noted that the feature first appeared on the twttr iOS app. She posted a screenshot showing how the feature looks like: the conversation starter's tweet sits at top spot, followed by a reply at the bottom. Those who reply to the reply will have their tweet nested at the bottom of the reply.

Those who replied to the conversation starter, on the other hand, will have their reply nested beneath sub-replies, but their reply will be connected to the conversation starter's tweet by means of a branch (or line). In other words, every reply to the conversation starter will start a new branch.

More updates

After some time, Wong posted another tweet showing that Twitter is hard at work on the new conversation feature. Her tweet simply said the Conversation Tree “now with the ability to focus on a specific tweet, even from a permalink.”

A GIF accompanying the tweet showed how the new feature worked. Tapping on any tweet in any thread highlights that tweet, similar to twttr's card-style layout. Tapping on another tweet removes the focus on the highlighted tweet, and transfers focus to the tweet the user tapped.

TechCrunch noted that Wong wasn't opted into the test, but Twitter nonetheless confirmed that what she found is part of the features the company is testing on twttr. Some of these features, the Twitter spokesperson said, might make its way to Twitter in 2020.