Notice anything new in Twitter? Moments hits Irish shores

5 Oct 2016

Twitter on mobile. Image: RAYBON/Shutterstock

Having been launched in a few countries for some time now, Irish Twitter users now get access to its Moments feature that emulates Snapchat’s Stories.

It has been almost exactly one year since Twitter revealed Moments – an accumulation of tweets on specific topics – as its answer to the popularity of features like Snapchat’s Stories or even Instagram Stories.

In recent days, some of the most popular Twitter Moments have shown a series of tweets, Vines and GIFs of the devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean.

But as of now, Irish users will be able to view these international and home-generated moments on mobile and desktop.

Some of the other potential Moments include conversations between world leaders and celebrities, citizens reporting events as they happen, cultural memes, live commentary on the night’s big match, among others.

From Twitter’s perspective, the Moments concept allows users to see tweets they normally wouldn’t have seen because they don’t follow particular accounts.

Can link with a user’s timeline

While users will be able to create their own Twitter Moments, much of the work will be done by the social network’s own curation teams, with some additional input from media organisations.

The Moments tab will update throughout the day as more stories come in, but if users want to see them more frequently, they can enable an option to insert them into their timeline and disappear once the story is over.

Speaking of what this means from an Irish perspective, Mark Little, managing director of Twitter Dublin said: “For ten years, Twitter has been a natural home for a new style of Irish storyteller: fast, fun, and full of character. With Moments, we’ve made it easier to find uniquely Irish stories on Twitter, in more depth and breadth.”

Here are some of the moments that feature on Ireland’s page.

Twitter on mobile. Image: RAYBON/Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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