Twitter ‘read before retweet’ prompt shows promising results

Twitter will continue rolling out a new feature that asks users to read articles before retweeting, following successful tests earlier this year.

In a series of tweets, Twitter said that it wants to foster and encourage informed discussions on its platform, especially with the rise of fake news.

It says that it wants to actively promote media literacy and prevent the spread of misinformation.

The prompt, which Twitter started testing on Android in June, will pop-up when users want to share or retweet a story which they haven’t read.

This is especially important when headlines are misleading or do not provide the full scope of the story. The feature aims to curb misleading stories from going viral.

On its official Comms account, the company said that is has found some promising results during testing.

“We shouldn’t have to say this, but you should read an article before you tweet it. So, we’ve been prompting some people to do exactly that,” the company said.

Twitter found that the prompt encourages users to read more, with a 40% increase in opening articles after people see the prompt.

The company added that there was also a 33% increase in people opening articles before retweeting after the feature was introduced.

Meanwhile, some people decided not to retweet after seeing the prompt.

The company is planning to bring these prompts to all users around the world in the near future.

“Working on bring these prompts to everyone globally soon,” the company says.

We shouldn't have to say this, but you should read an article before you Tweet it. https://t.co/Apr9vZb2iI

So, we’ve been prompting some people to do exactly that. Here’s what we’ve learned so far. ⤵️

— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) September 24, 2020

Additional new Twitter features

However, this isn’t the only feature they are working on.

Other features the company has been testing include limiting the number of users that can reply to tweets. Twitter launched this feature fully in August

The social network has also been testing a feature that asks users to rethink potentially offensive tweets.

The pop-up prompt will appear in certain situations, allowing users to revise the “harmful” language in their tweets before it they publish.

The feature is currently testing on Android, iOS, and web.

When things get heated, you may say things you don't mean. To let you rethink a reply, we’re running a limited experiment on iOS with a prompt that gives you the option to revise your reply before it’s published if it uses language that could be harmful.

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) May 5, 2020

Feature image: Twitter