Twitter rolls out revamped “Quote Tweet” feature, coming soon to Android

Twitter has always been somewhat against quoted Tweets when it comes to sharing, and for good reason. The original tweet often takes up too many characters for the person who’s sharing to make any sort of comment of their own.

Thankfully they’re introducing an all new system that allows users to embed a Tweet within a tweet. You get all 140 of your own characters to write, and the Tweet you’re quoting / commenting on is shown right below.

Say more with revamped quote Tweet! Rolling out on iPhone and web, coming soon to Android. https://t.co/Bcl3E859ne pic.twitter.com/fioAPPi0nW

— Twitter (@twitter) April 6, 2015

Only, there’s one catch for us Android users — we can’t use it yet. It’s rolling out to the web and iOS versions already, but Android has been put on the infamous waiting list. We’re hoping the wait won’t be too long, but in the meantime you can check out Twitter’s quick set of instructions right here to get familiar with the system ahead of its arrival (and give it a try on the web version of Twitter if you aren’t above that sort of thing these days).

[via Twitter]

Twitter makes it possible to DM someone without having to follow each other

“Can you follow me so I can send you a direct message?” That’s how a typical 140-character conversation that needs to go private begins if the two parties aren’t following each other. It was always annoying not being able to send private, direct messages to other people unless both parties followed each other, but now Twitter is changing that.

You can now set whether you want people to be able to send you a direct message regardless of follow status. Should you enable it, someone who wants to send you a direct message will see a button to do so when they visit your profile. You can also continue the conversation with a reply of your own even if that person has opted out of receiving direct messages from people they don’t follow.

Here’s how you go about doing it on the Android version of the Twitter app once you’ve received the update:

1. In the top menu, tap on the overflow icon


2. Select Settings and tap the account @username you’d like to adjust.


3. Under Other, tap Receive Direct Messages from anyone to allow anyone to send you Messages.

And there you have it — no more awkward “follow me and I’ll follow you” nonsense before two people are able to converse in the private, comfy confines of their digital message box.

[via Twitter]

Samsung starts teasing the Iron Man Galaxy S6 Edge on Twitter

So Samsung might not be looking to bring out an entire collection of Avengers-themed Samsung Galaxy S6 devices (they do have a fleet of cases coming), but we can at least expect an Iron Man Edition to launch. Previous rumors tipped us off to that much and the company confirmed it to Korean press, and now Samsung has started teasing it themselves.

Unfortunately the graphic doesn’t give any other hints, such as when it’s scheduled to arrive or how much it’ll cost. All we get is an ominous “coming soon” note, and a box with a glow bright enough to make any cat curious.

We’ve already gotten an idea of how a Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge would look draped in Iron Man colors thanks to the conceptual work of one enthusiastic designer. This may not be the design Samsung ends up going with, but it gives us a good idea of what to expect — and if it’s anything close to the aforementioned render we’d say there’s plenty to be excited about.

[via Twitter]

Twitter can now autoplay GIFs and videos in your timeline

Auto-playing videos started as an annoying thing on Facebook, but it has spread to even more social media sites. The latest to adopt the feature is Twitter. In an attempt to cut down on the number of taps it takes play a video or GIF, Twitter has made it possible for these clips to automatically play as you’re scrolling past. It only works with native Twitter videos, Vines, and GIFs.

The videos don’t play audio when you’re scrolling past. Similarly to Instagram, you can tap on a video to enable the audio. To watch a video in full screen you can simply rotate your phone into landscape mode. But perhaps the best feature is the ability to disable auto-play completely. If you’re annoyed by the auto-playing you can go into the settings and disable the feature, or have auto-play enabled while connected to WiFi.

Big kudos to Twitter for allowing users to decide how this feature works. Twitter for Android will be getting this feature soon.

[via Twitter]

The CEO of Twitter will be leaving the company in July

Social media sites have become hugely popular thanks in large part to smartphones. One of the first social networks to really take mobile seriously was Twitter. Today the company has announced that CEO Dick Costolo will step down on July 1st. He will be replaced by co-founder Jack Dorsey as the interim CEO.

Our CEO, @dickc, will step down as CEO, and we’ll welcome @jack as Interim CEO on July 1 #TWTRannouncement: http://t.co/q8Ygg91jzc

— Twitter (@twitter) June 11, 2015

Jack Dorsey was the original CEO of Twitter until 2008 when fellow co-founder Evan Williams took over. In 2010 Costolo took over as CEO. In the last five years under Costolo the service has had many design changes and controversial changes. The biggest thing to affect Android users is the change to the Twitter API which has killed many awesome 3rd-party apps. Twitter is everywhere and it should continue to grow under Dorsey.

Twitter is finally taking messaging more serious, will remove 140 character limit for DMs in July

We’re hoping this is just the first of many new changes coming to Twitter since appointing a new CEO. The decision to remove the 140 character limit from DMs (direct messages) may not be related to a new CEO, but it’s a welcome change none the less. Twitter has long imposed a 140 character limit when posting anything — even direct messages — creating an unique challenge for those looking to share links to articles and videos.

One could argue that the boom of short URLs on the internet sprouted out from these restrictions as Twitter grew into one of the biggest social networks in the world. But now with the world moving over to actual messaging services like Messenger, WhatsApp and Snapchat, it’s time for Twitter to start taking messaging more seriously.

We imagine it’s only a matter of time before Twitter launches some sort of stand-alone messaging service. It wouldn’t be too far fetched what with the purchase of services like Vine or Periscope. Twitter will remove the 140 character limit for users starting in July and if you’re a developer, you can read up more on what this means for you and your 3rd party Twitter apps via the link below.

[Twitter]