After it was spotted in testing last week, Twitter has now officially rolled out its new, separate count listing for ‘Quote Tweets’ on the main tweet display.
Tweets about a Tweet add more to the conversation, so we’ve made them even easier to find.
Retweets with comments are now called Quote Tweets and they’ve joined the Tweet detail view. Tap into a Tweet, then tap “Quote Tweets” to see them all in one place. pic.twitter.com/kMqea6AC80
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) August 31, 2020
As we reported last week, back in May, Twitter launched a new, separate listing of ‘Retweets’ and ‘Retweets with Comment’ within the tweet detail, in order to provide more transparency on engagement. Shortly after that, Twitter then changed the wording of the main ‘Retweets’ listing to the more inclusive ‘Retweets and comments’, making it easier for users to understand what this count incorporated.
But that still meant that Retweets ad Quote Tweets were included in a single count on the main display, which is still a little unclear at first glance. More recent tests have seen Twitter trying out ‘Quotes’ and ‘Quote Tweets’ as separate listing titles alongside the ‘Retweets’ count. ‘Quotes’ seemed to be a better fit for the top level display, as it took up less room, but it could also have been confusing as to what it actually means. Does that mean quotes within the tweet? People who’ve quoted it?
It may seem like a pedantic distinction to make, but Twitter has been working to make its platform easier to understand over the last few years after various feedback reports suggested that tweeting was, for some, difficult to get a handle on. That, potentially, had stopped some people from signing up for an account – and when you consider it from this perspective, small changes like these do matter, even if, in a functional sense, they don’t have any major impact.
Now, Twitter has settled on ‘Quote Tweets’, which it must feel is easy enough to understand. That’ll make it easier to view full tweet response activity at a glance, which could help to provide more context – and a whole new tweet ratio consideration for related comments.
It’s worth noting, too, that with Twitter recently launching its new reply control feature, if a user restricts who can reply, quote tweets could be the only way for most to respond. Now, they’ll be listed on the tweet display, which may also provide a level of accountability.
It’s not a major change, but it is a relevant one, and it will make it easier to see how people are reacting to each tweet, which could even spark more, similar engagement.
