Twitter is testing a way for users to more easily post tweet-storms, those multi-message mini-essays that are a sometimes frustrating workaround to the service’s strict 140-character limit.
The company is experimenting with a new feature that would let users pre-write a series of tweets and then post them all at once as a thread, according to images of the feature posted online this weekend by Matt Navarra, social media director for tech news site The Next Web. An app developer had reportedly found those images in Twitter’s Android app before sharing them with Navarra.
At the moment, Twitter users looking to unleash a torrent of threaded tweets—also sometimes referred to as a “Twitter rant”—must post one tweet at a time, while being careful to make each new post a reply to the previous one so that all of the posts appear in an easier-to-follow chain. Users often feel compelled to warn users in their initial message that a “thread” is coming and then affix each tweet in the series with a number.
WOAH! Twitter has a hidden tweet storm feature!
H/t Devesh Logendran pic.twitter.com/QpDLhKnAZZ
— Matt Navarra (I quit X. Follow me on Threads) (@MattNavarra) September 10, 2017
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Users generally agree that it’s an imperfect solution to a long-time problem. Many have asked Twitter to create a remedy.
Twitter declined to comment to various publications about the tweet-storm feature, which is not yet being tested publicly and may never actually be released to users. Coins2Day contacted Twitter for comment and we will update this article with any response.
Twitter often tests and releases new features aimed at simplifying the service for its users, including allowing mentions of other users’ Twitter names or @ handles without affecting the character count. The service also stopped counting media embeds against the 140-character limit, including photos, videos, and animated GIFs.