 "Twitter makes the timeline more visual with image and Vine previews")
When you log into Twitter today, be prepared for a change. While the social networking website is still sporting the same old, comfortable user interface, your timeline is about to get a lot more visual. Previews of images and vines will now show up even as you scroll through the timeline, without needing to click on the tweet to view it.
Opening up the tweet drawer to view Vines and images are passé starting today. You will be able to see exactly what image is inside the tweet now within the timeline. This change has come not just to Twitter on the web but also the service’s applications on iOS and Android.
Of course, these are just previews that you will see while scrolling through your timeline. In order to view the entire image or Vine, click on the Tweet and open up the drawer. “So many of the great moments you share on Twitter are made even better with photos or with videos from Vine. These rich Tweets can bring your followers closer to what’s happening, and make them feel like they are right there with you,” Michael Sippey of Twitter wrote in a blog post explaining why the micro-blogging service thought of introducing this feature. “We want to make it easier for everyone to experience those moments on Twitter.”
What makes this new feature interesting is that it has added fuel to the fire of rumours circulating about Twitter’s upcoming display ads feature. TechCrunch notes that this effectively means that Twitter has sort of launched display ads now. Since preview images will keep coming up as you scroll through your timeline, promoted tweets with images inserted on them will not go unnoticed anymore. There will be a preview image drawing attention to itself, grabbing more eyeballs in the process. Check this tweet out to see what it will look like.
With the IPO just around the corner, Twitter is leaving no stone unturned to introduce all the changes it can to its products. Along with the preview change, Sippey has announced yet another feature that may not go down with users too well. The Reply, Favourite and Retweet buttons are now very prominently displayed on the tweets. Previously, they were subtly placed within tweets to make themselves available only when they were needed. This meant that when you hovered over a tweet, it would display all the actions necessary in a bold fashion. Now – at least on the web version of Twitter – the function buttons are displayed on each tweet, making the timeline look almost too cluttered.
The new changes have already rolled out to Twitter on the web and you can have them reflect on your phones by updating Twitter for iOS and Twitter for Android.
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