Twitter Tests Breaking News Feature

In the latest episode of Industry Spotlight Lee, Chris & Jamie discuss their take on Twitter’s decision to test a new ‘breaking news’ feature, in which breaking news is the first thing that a user sees on their timeline. Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

See below for a full video transcription.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

Lee: Okay. So, the next thing we’re going to look at is Twitter testing news to be the first thing that a user sees in the timeline. It’s an interesting move, and I think potentially something that has been triggered by Facebook releasing their breaking news or testing their breaking news feature. The article that we’re looking at on Digital Trends suspects that it’s a sports-focused roll out initially, which would make sense given the fact that Twitter have partnered with people historically like the NFL and things like that. And I think this kind of lends itself to Twitter’s natural makeup, being a breaking news, sort of, style site with trending hashtags and things like that. So I don’t think it’s anything particularly new.

Chris: Yeah. I think, they’re just trying to probably tidy the landscape up a little bit and make sure that they’ve got a voice in that. Because you’ve not really heard much about Twitter, have you really in all this? They’ve not really been talked about negatively in any way. It might just be their response or them trying to, you know, let people know that they are focusing on relevance as well, and stuff that’s newsworthy.

Jamie: Yeah. It seems like all the social networks have got some sort of play on this same thing now, you know, a human created news section. Now Snapchat have got the news bit, and then, you know, Facebook have got it. And yeah, seems logical, Twitter have it too.

Chris: Yeah. It’s what people want to see, isn’t it really? I think that it is a good step towards giving people relevant news, you know, as they’re waking up, getting the breaking news. I think it’s that transition, isn’t it, as well, from people who would naturally fire up the news app on the phone, why bother when you can get a bit of, you know, social content from your peers combined with news as well? If it’s all in one place, then there’s no need to really go to a news website.

Jamie: News apps aren’t that popular anymore, are they? They used to be years ago. It just seems like, yeah, no one bothers anymore. They just rely on social. So if you can get some credible sources in there and they’re not just, your mates, spouting stuff from them, yeah.

Chris: Yeah. But why not get a combination of the two if you can on one platform?

Jamie: Exactly, yup.