4 changes that Twitter expected to be “simpler” and win new users – BBC World

Image copyright PA

Image caption changes in the platform allow videos and photos not reduce the number of characters in each message.

Twitter is modifying some of its basic rules of operation to try to make their use more friendly and at the same time, become more attractive to new users.

the social network will add multimedia messages to tweets, including photos and videos, without these consume the limit of 140 characters for each message.

also change the so how conversations between users are presented.

the cofounder and CEO of the company, Jack Dorsey, told the BBC that the objective is to ensure that “when people tweeted, messages make sense “.

One analyst said that these measures point to a” positive change “but added that only solves” one symptom “of the difficulty of Twitter to increase your audience .

Despite the constant references to the tweets in the news during the past year Twitter has struggled to attract new users to its platform, a problem partly attributable to the tool is unclear.

Image copyright Getty

Image caption Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, wants to make more friendly use of that social network.

“One of our top priorities this year is to really refine our product, make it simpler,” Dorsey said.

“I think there is a story to tell about what it’s Twitter and further strengthening why you’d use Twitter, “he said.

” Nonsense “

changes that prepares Twitter are:

• the attachments such as photos and videos, and will not count for the purposes of 140-character limit.
• The use of names of other users in responses to other tweets no longer be counted.
• users will be able to retweet and quote his own tweets, allowing rescue old messages and add comments.
• Any new twit than response to a alien message and start with the user name of another person may be seen by all followers of that person

This last change ends one of the most baffling systems Twitter:. the tuits to begin with the name of a user only see followers who writes the message if they also follow the user mentioned at the beginning of the tweet.

to circumvent that rule, users added one point to their tweets to that they look like this:

“that does not make sense to anyone and people had to turn around” @ username. “.. That looks ugly and confusing, “he said Dorsey told the BBC.

Moment of adaptation

Brian Blau, an analyst at Gartner, considers that the difficulties of Twitter to get new users will not be solved with these changes.

“the central problem is to attract new users and make them loyal over time,” he said.

Image copyright Getty

Image caption More than 300 million people use Twitter worldwide, but the network is struggling to attract new users.

“We have not seen anything of Twitter that makes me think they are solving this fundamental issue.”

The changes announced in the social network will not be executed immediately but later this year , in order to provide an opportunity for developers to integrate new standards in third-party apps and web pages.