I wrote a blog recently about what Instagram needed to do to stay relevant. I questioned whether the app would be able to survive by copying other social apps to stay ahead of the game.
Think Instagram Reels (TikTok), Instagram Stories (Snapchat), IGTV (YouTube), and Instagram Guides (blogs).
However, now it seems that another app is getting in on the copying action.
Enter the game, Twitter.
Twitter’s new features
Twitter have recently introduced a number of new features that I’ve been quite dubious about, but with each new feature being introduced, I’m becoming a little more interested.
1. Twitter Fleets
Twitter first introduced Twitter Fleets (read: Snapchat and Instagram stories for Twitter).
Personally, I never watch them. They’re at the top of my Twitter feed in the little circles, exactly like Instagram, however in the complete opposite way, I scroll through my Twitter feed whereas I happily scroll through Instagram Stories rather than my Instagram feed.
Ok that’s a lot of words. I hope you understood that.
2. Twitter Spaces
And now we see Twitter take on the new audio-based app, Clubhouse.
Twitter Spaces are where users can come together and form rooms to host voice activated chats.
Twitter also introduced voice-recorded tweets where users can tweet out recorded audio if they are in a situation where they can’t tweet (think live news).
So the question Twitter poses is, do we need a whole new app to chat on? Or can we do everything in the confines of the Twitter app?
I’m especially intrigued about this question now that Twitter has revealed another new feature that at first I said outright, this won’t work. But now that I think about it some more, this could be a very clever move by Twitter to be the first to launch this.
3. Twitter Super Followers
It wasn’t that long ago that Instagram leaked a little news that largely-followed users on the app (read: influencers and celebs) may start charging for their followers to view premium content.
It would have worked as a subscription content where followers would pay to access all areas of an influencer’s profiles. This meant the follower wouldn’t miss out on any stories, posts, IGTVs, reels etc.
But the news didn’t go down too well with current users of the app and so nothing has ever come of it.
Ahead of the game, Twitter have involved themselves in the subscription form of content and introduced Twitter Super Followers.
Super followers will be able to subscribe to a Twitter account for a fee and enjoy premium content at a set price. For this, I’m thinking news accounts and personalities on Twitter that will charge for all-access to tweets, Fleets, and Spaces.
The dark horse of social
While we all saw the growth of Instagram and TikTok, and now Clubhouse, a part of me always felt like Twitter was getting left behind.
It wasn’t really an app for content creation as such and there wasn’t really any space for ads/sponsored tweets (except for brand ads and that kind of thing).
However, even though I was spending more time on other social apps, I would still check in on Twitter at least once a day.
Twitter is the app that I find out what’s going on in the world; always has been, and probably always will be.
So maybe Twitter has been lurking in the shadows for a while dealing with Mr. Trump, but now that he’s gone, maybe this is Twitter’s time to shine.
With the introduction of all these new features, might Twitter be coming to take over and set to become the social media app?
I’m not sure, but I do think there is a lot of success in Twitter’s future.
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