Twitter today announced the launch of a new “Communities” feature that’s meant to take on Facebook’s popular Groups by providing a space where people can share discussions on a specific topic.
An invite-only feature at the current time, Communities are created by Twitter users and are self-moderated. Community creators who are invited by Twitter to participate can invite an unlimited number of users to their group.
Members of a Community will see a new option to choose an audience in the tweet composer, allowing them to tweet to all of their followers or just to those followers who participate in the Community.
Communities are invite-only (also for now!) but admins and moderators have unlimited invites and members have 5 invites per Community (again, for now!) that are sent via DM
so choose wisely (3/7) pic.twitter.com/KTDnmhOB8T
— Twitter Communities (@JoinCommunities) September 8, 2021
Tweets shared to a Community will show up in the Community and in the timelines of other members of the group. Communities are not private and can be viewed by others on Twitter, but only members can participate.
On iOS devices, Communities can be accessed through the navigation bar, and on the web, there’s a Communities option on the sidebar.
Starting today, there are a handful of Communities available such as #DogTwitter and #SkinCareTwitter, but Twitter is planning for more to be created each week and those interested in starting a Community can apply on the Twitter website.
Top Stories
Twitter Tests Edge-to-Edge Images and Video on iOS
Twitter is testing “edge-to-edge” tweets that span the width of the timeline in its official iOS app, a move that would make viewing photos and videos a more full-screen experience. As Twitter’s demonstration shows, the change brings an Instagram-style look to tweeted media, making use of the dead space on either side of pictures, videos, and GIFs. Twitter told The Verge that it’s…
Twitter Rolling Out New Version of TweetDeck Starting Today
Twitter today announced that it has started rolling out a redesigned version of its TweetDeck Twitter client, which it has been working on since earlier this year. The new version of TweetDeck is rolling out to a “limited number of accounts” of randomly selected people in the United States, Canada, and Australia. According to Twitter, the new design is meant to better align with the…
Twitter’s Privacy Feature Plans Include Option to Hide Your Old Tweets
Twitter is planning new privacy-related features that provide users with greater control over follower lists and who can see their posts and likes, reports Bloomberg. The plans are said to include an option to archive old tweets so that other users can’t see them after a set period of time designated by the account holder (such as 30, 60, or 90 days, or a whole year), as well as the ability…
iPhone 13 Satellite Support Rumor Disputed, Likely for Additional 5G Spectrum
Over the weekend, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo sent out a research note suggesting that the iPhone 13 was “likely” to support low earth orbit satellite communication, a feature that would allow iPhone users to make calls and send messages when cellular and WiFi connections are unavailable. In this note, Kuo said that Apple would use a “customized” Qualcomm X60 baseband chip that supports…
Unexpected iPhone 13 Rumor Hints at Satellite Feature That Android Can’t Match
The iPhone 13 lineup will offer a revolutionary new feature that Android competitors have yet to be able to match, according to a late-stage report from the reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In a note to investors, seen by MacRumors, Kuo explained that the iPhone 13 contains a customized Qualcomm X60 baseband chip that supports low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications. If enabled with the …
Twitter Launches Paid Super Follows, Creators Can Charge Up to $9.99/Month
Twitter today announced the official launch of Super Follows, a new feature that allows creators to provide subscriber-only content that requires a paid fee to access. First introduced in February, Super Follow is another method that Twitter is using to monetize tweets and provide content creators with a way to earn money on the platform. Creators who use the Super Follow feature on…
Twitter Cancels ‘Fleets’ Just Months After Launch
Twitter in November debuted a new ephemeral tweet option called “Fleets,” with the feature designed to compete with Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, Snapchat, and more. Fleets apparently did not catch on, because Twitter today announced that Fleets are being discontinued as of August 3, which is less than a year after the feature launched. Twitter says that it had hoped Fleets would…
Apple Secretly Had a ‘Double Agent’ in the iPhone Leaker Community
For more than a year, a member of the iPhone leaks and jailbreaking community was actually serving as a “double agent” for Apple by secretly providing the company with information about other leakers, according to Motherboard. The report claims that Andrey Shumeyko, who was known as “YRH04E” online, advertised internal Apple information and stolen devices for sale on platforms like Twitter…
