Elon Musk has declared he wants to
transform Twitter into an all-inclusive app that people can use for payments,
news, and food orders.
“Buying Twitter is an accelerant to
creating X, the everything app,” Musk posted in October, weeks before
completing a $44 billion acquisition of the social network.
اضافة اعلان
He later said that Twitter could be like
WeChat, the popular Chinese app that combines social media, instant messaging,
and payment services.
But nearly six months after Musk took over
Twitter, his ambitions for the platform have remained mostly that — ambitions.
Although the billionaire has made dozens of
tweaks to Twitter, they have largely been cosmetic. His changes have mostly
affected the platform’s appearance, said Jane Manchun Wong, an independent
software engineer who studies social apps. Those updates include adding more
symbols and metrics displayed with tweets, but Twitter’s main elements — making
it a place to quickly share news and discuss live events — have not altered.
Still, users’ experiences are changing.
That’s because the kinds of tweets they see are being affected by Musk’s
behind-the-scenes adjustments. He has tinkered with the algorithm that decides
which posts are most visible, thrown out content moderation rules that ban
certain kinds of tweets and changed a verification process that confirms the
identities of users.
The upshot is a Twitter that looks similar
to the way it always has, but that is clunkier and less predictable in what
tweets are surfaced and seen, users said. In some cases, that has caused
confusion. Even Twitter’s employees have expressed frustration.
Last month, Andrea Conway, a designer at
Twitter, posted about the design changes, saying: “We know you hate it. We hate
it too. We’re working on making it suck less.” The modifications, she added,
could eventually make Twitter “completely unusable.”
Musk did not respond to a request for
comment.
So what looks different on Twitter now, and
what are the changes underlying the tweaks?
The newsfeedThe most notable difference is Twitter’s
newsfeed, the stream of posts people see when they open the app. Newsfeeds
previously appeared as a single flow of posts, displaying tweets from only the
accounts that a user followed.
Musk has cleaved the newsfeed into two. Now
when users open Twitter’s app, they see an algorithmically curated “For You”
feed, which mimics a popular feature on TikTok, and a “Following” tab.
The “For You” newsfeed incorporates changes
Musk has made to Twitter’s recommendation algorithm, pulling in more tweets
from people a user doesn’t follow and suggesting new topics and interests. That
also means users might see posts from all sorts of content creators whom they
might not be interested in. At one point in February, the algorithm flooded
users’ feeds with tweets from Musk.
Check marksMusk has also modified Twitter by adding a
flood of color-coded check marks, which belie a deeper change to how the
platform confirms the identities of organizations, governments, notable
individuals, and other official accounts.
Twitter previously offered white-and-blue
check marks for users who were “verified,” a kind of badge for those who had
substantiated their identities and who were typically public figures, such as
politicians and celebrities. The check marks were free.
Musk has begun charging users an $8 monthly
fee in exchange for a check mark, with the free check marks starting to
disappear this month. He is essentially favoring payments from subscribers,
departing from the idea that a check mark meant an account was notable.
Now yellow check marks indicate corporate
accounts, while gray check marks denote the accounts of government officials.
Companies can also add their logo to employees’ accounts, verifying their
employment. Individuals who pay get the blue-and-white check mark.
Those who paid for check marks would be
boosted by Twitter’s recommendation algorithm and be eligible to appear in
people’s “For You” newsfeeds, Musk said last month. That would prevent spam
accounts from gaming the algorithm and rising to the top of the “For You”
newsfeeds, he added.
Metrics, metrics, metricsFor most of Twitter’s history, users could
only like, retweet, or reply to a post. The numbers of replies, likes and
retweets then showed up at the end of a tweet.
Under Musk, every tweet now has more
metrics attached. He has added a tally showing how many times a post has been
viewed, saying the total number of views can demonstrate a message’s popularity
better than its total likes or retweets. Twitter has also added a tally for the
number of times a tweet is bookmarked and saved.
That means every tweet now has the number
of replies, likes, retweets, bookmarks, and views appended to it.
What do all of these moves add up to? Not
necessarily the smoothest experience, some Twitter users and employees said.
“Twitter has leaned in to the ‘crazy uncle’
contingent,” said Chris Messina, who is known as the inventor of the hashtag,
adding that he now sees recommended tweets that don’t align with his interests.
“In terms of the product, overall I think the quality has really regressed.”
Read more Technology
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
