It’s been in development for some time – really, for years – and now, Twitter’s begun an initial live test of its new ‘Status’ feature with some users in Australia and the US.
As you can see here, if you’re given access to the option, you’ll be prompted with a new pop-up alert when you open the app. From there you’ll be able to add a Status indicator to your tweets, with 17 activity options to choose from, including ‘Hot Take’, ‘Traveling’, ‘Shower Thoughts’ and ‘A Case of the Mondays’.
Those markers will then be added to your tweets, and displayed in-stream:
You can’t, at this stage, add your own custom status marker, you’re limited to these 17 options. But maybe, in future, that could be an expansion of the tool, which would then alleviate the need for users to add event hashtags to their username to indicate their attendance.
Which seemed to be one of the key use cases for the option when Twitter first announced that it was testing a status marker back in 2018.
Obviously, the presentation has evolved a lot since then, but the idea, based on this example, seemed to suggest that Twitter was specifically creating this element with these event tags in mind, in order to help users connect around real world functions.
Which is what people do on Twitter anyway – and it’s interesting to see that, through development, its Status tool has actually morphed into something else entirely.
Will adding a ‘Shower Thoughts’ marker to your tweets improve the tweet experience? Will it add anything of value?
What about ‘Hot Take’? ‘Working Hard, Hardly Working’?
Honestly, some of these seem to have been ripped straight out of a catalog for gimmick t-shirts, with cheesy slogans that don’t seem overly engaging.
But Twitter must think there’s something to it, and you would assume that it’s done the conversation research to determine some of the most commonly tweeted terms that it can now add into these indicators.
In any event, it’s only a test for now, with Twitter confirming the initial test pool to TechCrunch.
So, there it is – now you can add a little more context to your tweets, by letting people know that you’re ‘Traveling’ or ‘Soon’. Brands may also be able to use these markers to signify new launches or ‘Counting Down’ to an event.
Though I do suspect that much of the usage of the tool will be in a derogatory sense, essentially misusing these markers for things outside their intended purpose.
Maybe that’s fine – if it helps increase engagement, I’m sure Twitter will be happy. But I’m not sure about the value these new tags will bring.
