Now Twitter will tell you "why a topic is trending?"

Now Twitter will tell you why a topic is trending?
x

Twitter

Highlights

Twitter is all set to add more context to its trending tweets so that people don’t have to specifically ask - “Why is this trending?”

"Why is this trending?" is the most relevant questions on Twitter. Twitter shared that this phrase was tweeted more than half a million times in the last year. Twitter trends show what everyone is discussing, but in case you join a conversation late, all users are not aware of why something is being discussed.

Usually, users need to scroll through all the tweets to understand the context and figure out where the trend started and what it is about. "It should be easier to understand what's being said immediately," Twitter shared in a blog post.


Twitter added that they are planning to add more context on what's happening with labels on tweets and accounts too on Twitter Moments and related articles which are trending. Now, they are adding pinned tweets and descriptions on trends to help users realize why something is trending.

Now onwards, some trends will have a Representative Tweet pinned on them to give you more detail about it, Twitter explained in the blog. Twitter's curation team is working on to use a combination of algorithms to determine if a tweet represents a trend by evaluating if it is reflective of the trend and popular.

"Our algorithms are designed to identify representative Tweets that aren't potentially abusive, spam, or posted by accounts trying to take advantage of our system," Twitter added.

These Representative Tweets on trends is existing for Twitter on iOS and Android now, and it will be rolling out to Twitter on the web soon. To get it on your Twitter app, you need to update it.

"In the coming weeks, you should see brief descriptions added to some trends as well to help add context to the trend. Descriptions will provide straightforward, clearly sourced context around why something is trending," the blog explains.

Representative Tweets and descriptions on trends are existing in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

"To bring more clarity to the conversation, we hope to add more context to more trends over time. To be clear, we know there is more work to do to improve trends and the context updates we're announcing today are just a small step in the right direction. There is more we can do to help people understand why something is trending and to provide transparency around how something trends. We need to make trends better and we will," the platform added.

Ironically, just a few hours after this was announced, tweets for Trends and Search faced a glitch and were not loading. The issue was addressed and fixed within minutes.

Show Full Article
Print Article
More On
Next Story
More Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENTS