Finally: Twitter Tests Bookmark Tool So You Can Stop Fav-ing Everything

After announcing that it would be doubling its famed 140-character limit for the first time ever, Twitter has teased a promising new feature that power users have been asking about for years: bookmarking.

People are used to being able to save content for later on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, but on Twitter, no similar tool exists. The result is that users favorite content as a means for storing it for later, but this approach is flawed since it can mean “fav-ing” content that you might not want to be shared publicly.

The news was leaked via, you guessed it, Twitter and was apparently birthed as part of the company’s “hack week” activities.

For Hack Week @Twitter we started developing #SaveForLater. Here’s the early prototype that we put together in a week, which is likely to change. pic.twitter.com/c5LekvVF3l

— jesar 💭 (@jesarshah) October 9, 2017

Illustrated by a video prototype shared by Project Manager Jesar Shah(@jesarshah), bookmarking will work via a drop-down menu that’ll be tacked to an individual tweet. Tapping “Add to Bookmarks,” will trigger the saving of that tweet. To see all of the tweets you’ve bookmarked to date, you would simply click your profile photo.

In addition to the bookmarking tool test, Twitter has also announced “Happening Now,” aimed to enhance the platform’s accessibility.

Feel the roar of the crowd, no matter where you are.

We're rolling out a new way to see what's happening now, starting with sports in 🇺🇸! Available on Android and iOS starting today. https://t.co/lmBFCK4DG0 pic.twitter.com/cv4wL8hCxA

— Twitter (@Twitter) October 10, 2017

Per the demo, users will see a carousel rotating at the top of the screen containing trending content. Selecting one piece of content will bring you to the conversation comprised tweets organized algorithmically. Interestingly, some are not even attached to hashtags, rather just plain text as if you were engaged in a text conversation.

So, what’s the difference between “Happening Now” and “Moments?” According to TechCrunch, “Moments” is more cohesive in what it collates, whereas “Happening Now” will be more dedicated with respect to content surrounding a single event. Mashable sources add, “events will be personalized to each user based on their interests and what types of accounts they follow.” That is, it will result in a much more customized timeline versus what you’ll see with “Moments.”

Though the company is kicking things off by catering to sports fans, it is already revealing plans on expanding efforts to add additional categories such as breaking news and entertainment. Twitter’s VP of Product, Keith Coleman, stated in a tweet from his own account, the company is just “scratching the surface” with this initial introduction. Clearly focusing on live events and engagement, BuzzFeed also just launched a live morning show, called “AM to DM.”

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