Threads is looking to help users post longer missives, with the addition of a custom text editor, which attaches a separate text window to your update.

As you can see in these examples, posted by Robert Nickson, Threads is live testing a new text editor, which provides an easy way to expand your post into a longer article, that will then be automatically attached to your update.

It’s not available to all users as yet, but if you have it, you’ll see a new page icon in your posting options in the app.

Tap on that and you’ll be shown a new info pop-up, which explains the update:

From there, you’ll be taken to the next text editor window, which is like a blog post composer, including a larger text window and text-styling options.

It’s similar to Twitter’s “Articles” option, which it first experimented with before Elon Musk took over at the app, after then-CEO Jack Dorsey lamented the rise in people posting screenshots of Notes app text in their updates.

Since then, as X, the platform has extended the length of posts in-stream instead, with paying users now able to use up to 25k characters in their updates.

X also has a long-form “Articles” option as well (also for paid users), through which it has encouraged publications to post direct to the app, in order to get better reach.

This is seemingly Threads’ variation of the same, providing another means for Threads users to post longer content without needing to share screenshots of text.

And it looks good, it looks like a handy option that will indeed cater to those who want to include longer descriptions. I mean, it does somewhat go against the short-form nature of the app, and, you know, creating threads, like its namesake, but with so many people looking to post more context, to ensure they’re understood, it could be a helpful addition.

The Threads team is currently testing its long-form update with some users.

Source link

The post Threads Tests In-Stream Text Expansion for Longer Updates appeared first on LemonFire.

X is adding another way to view expanded interaction with X posts, with a new “View quotes” quick link within the lower function bar options on updates.

As you can see in this example, some X users are now seeing a new “View quotes” in the expanded post view in the app.

That’ll give you another way to see how a post is being discussed by people beyond the direct replies, rather than having to tap the re-post icon itself.

Which is a small update, and not really a massive functional change. But X’s recently appointed head of product Nikita Bier says that this new entry point will help to “surface some of the best content” in the app.

Bier has been tasked with uncovering new ways to encourage engagement in the app, applying his knowledge of viral dynamics to X’s long-standing UI.

Because despite Elon and Co.’s many proclamations of many changes at the app since he took over back in 2022, really, the X user experience is pretty much the same as it’s always been.  

That’s not to say that the X team isn’t improving the app. The now much smaller X team (after Musk’s staff cull) is shipping smaller tweaks and changes at a solid rate. But in a broader sense, I don’t feel like using X is really any different from when it was Twitter.

Even though it’s now a “video first” app. Even though Elon is “transforming the global town square.”

Musk’s “everything app” vision might still be coming, with payments at the center of a revised X UI. But at this stage, most of the X updates are fairly minor, which is what Twitter had also been criticized for in the years before Elon purchased the app.

So maybe, then Nikita Bier, having built several of his own trending apps, can change things up.

So far, Bier has:

• Updated screenshot sharing of X posts
• Fixed a long-standing bug related to the timeline refreshing at random
• Expanded the length of cashtags
• Updated the process for communicating with @grok

Of course, there’s likely way more internal projects that Bier is also involved with, but in terms of public-facing updates, these are the changes that we’ve seen so far in his first weeks at the app.

Maybe, more significant UI changes are coming, and maybe, all of these smaller updates are cumulatively delivering a larger-scale improvement in overall engagement and usage.

The new “View quotes” option is currently in testing on iOS.

Source link

The post X Tests Alternative Way To View Quote Posts appeared first on LemonFire.