Twitter can be an incredibly useful tool to find coverage and commentary of current events, but its utility relies largely on who you follow. Now Twitter wants to make it a lot easier to discover new content with a new ‘Explore’ tab.
Like the Explore section on, say, Instagram, it’s meant to help you find interesting posts beyond the people you follow, and the feature actually first showed up in tests back in October. It claims the space previously occupied by the Moments tab and replaces it with a broader collection of live video, trends, search and Moments.
That said, it’s clear Twitter is scaling back its efforts with Moments. While they don’t appear to be going away anytime soon, Moments appear to only show up in the Explore tab after live video and trends. (Update: Twitter assures me it’s not planning on scaling back Moments. You’ll still be able to see all the Moments you previously could, and Twitter is creating the same amount as before, if not more).
That makes some sense though; live video and trends tend to reflect ongoing commentary. Moments, though updated quickly, are curated by actual people, and thus reflect things that have already happened.
It’s a useful addition that will hopefully make Twitter a little friendlier to new users few people to follow, as well as help you look beyond your own Twitter bubble. The feature is rolling out today to iOS and will arrive on Android “in the coming weeks.”
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