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If Twitter feels like a firehose of information, you may be interested in a brand new tool. Moments is a new feature that Twitter launched this week to help you sort through the millions of tweets posted hourly.
Moments is a new section of Twitter that lets you find information more efficiently, with just one tap or click. Twitter has picked “the best of Twitter” and put these tweets into Moments.
New! Find the best of Twitter in an instant with Moments: https://t.co/QAKGUSVBbT pic.twitter.com/KAjfkysVKC
— Twitter (@twitter) October 6, 2015
These collected tweets are selected by Twitter and come from Twitter users and Twitter partners such as Bleacher Report, Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Fox News, Getty Images, Mashable, MLB, NASA, New York Times, Vogue and the Washington Post. You might see tweets about trending topics such as the Nobel Prize, sport events, celebrity news, politics and the Northern Lights:
NORTHERN LIGHTS–This is a LIVE look at where the Northern Lights are visible right now. Visible until 3am. #10tv pic.twitter.com/XW6WuWX6VF — Chris Bradley (@Chris10TV) October 8, 2015
Availability
Moments is available on computers and on the Twitter app for Android and iPhone. Twitter launched Moments in the US on Tuesday and will bring it to other countries in the coming weeks and months.
How to Use Moments
You can view Moments by clicking on the lightning Moments icon on the top menu bar in Twitter on your computer.
On your phone, tap the lightning Moments icon in the bottom menu bar.
Topics and tweets in Moments change throughout the day. A dot appears by the lightning icon when new Moments are available.
Moments on both computers and phones shows you categories of interest. You can choose categories such as Today, News, Sports, Entertainment and Fun. (Hey, where’s Tech?)
On your computer categories appear in the upper left corner of the screen. On your phone categories appear at the top of your screen.
Clicking or tapping on a category shows you topics within that category and a sample tweet within that topic. You can click or tap on a topic to see tweets related to that topic, including any images or video embedded in those tweets.
You can favorite and retweet tweets within Moments. Tweets you share from Moments can be seen by anyone, whether or not they have access to Moments yet.
Northern Lights’ spectacular show 🌌
Twitter on your computer will show you a collection of tweets for a topic. On your phone, swipe to move through the collection of tweets.
The Today category shows you trending topics such as Amazing, Music, Politics, Television, and Haha. Explore each category to find topics of interest to you.
Following Moments
You can follow Moments if you see a Follow button on the Moment. Click or tap on the Follow button and tweets from that Moment will appear in your stream.
Tweets from a Moment in your stream show a lightning icon.
When the Moment you followed is over, you will no longer see tweets from that Moment in your stream.
You can read more about Moments in the Twitter blog: Moments, the best of Twitter in an instant.
Your Thoughts
Have you seen Moments yet? Are you looking forward to seeing tweets within Moments? Which category, besides tech, would you like to see in Moments? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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Hi Carolyn,
Interesting indeed 🙂
This is the first time I am hearing of Moments, and how exciting to read and know all about it! So good to know that eventually it would be coming over to the other countries as well, as of now it’s just for the US.
I’d surely love to give it a try and lets see what all I can see once I visit Twitter- though of course it’s not visible on my profile, so wonder how I can see any of it at all to follow them? I guess I’d have to be patient till it comes over at our end. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this wonderful news with us – trust you to keep us updated with the latest. Have a nice, rest of the week 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, Moments is a new exciting tool for Twitter. How useful it will be will depend on how relevant the Moments are for everyone. If you can find Moments that matter to you then you’ll probably use Moments a lot.
If I retweet a tweet I found in Moments, then anyone can see that tweet even if they don’t yet have Moments.
I hope Moments is released around the world soon, Harleena. I remember from when I lived in the UK how frustrating it was when tech was only available in the US at first. It’s an exercise in patience!
Hi Carolyn,
This might be useful to me if I can quickly find what trending etc. I use Hootsuite which can find me Tweets using a keyword which is useful for checking out hashtags.
I took some photos that aren’t very good. It was a play and Chinese dancing. I think the round lights that I thought were fluorescent were something else. I still need more practice. The HD video that I shot wasn’t bad though.
Hi Mike, Yes, there does seem to be overlap between what’s Trending on Twitter and what’s in Moments. But Moments isn’t a total repeat of Trending. Moment does seem to cover other topics and find the tweets with the most interesting images, video, messages, etc.
I am looking forward to learn about it here in Egypt.
HI Gilbert, I hope Moments comes to you in Egypt soon!
Carolyn, I really like them. I think it is a nice feature. I was watching the MLB the other night live for a while. I just wonder how they pick what to use for moments. I am not sure I read if it was defined or not.
Thanks for sharing this one with us!
Hi Lisa, Twitter does try to find the best trends to include in Moments. Twitter also is including sponsored posts in Moments.
You can try Moments to see if you like this new feature on Twitter.
This i s the great feature on twitter. by using moments we can increase more traffic on our blog and get more followers. before reading this article i don’t know about moments. thanks for sharing such good post.
Hi Arun, That’s great you’ve figured out a way to make Moments help you get traffic to your blog. I hope you share your ideas in a future article at your blog!
Hi Carolyn. I had heard about Twitter Moments but hadn’t done anything about it because I’m too busy putting the finishing touches on my Twitter product LOL. I set it aside, because there is no way to make a product that is 100% up-to-date, since they change things every other day. Figure it will be an addendum.
Thanks so much for this guide. It is very helpful to me.
All the best,
Leslie
Wow.. This is an interesting feature added by twitter.. I found it hard to keep track to all the tweets from those I follow. Sometimes, due to the mess, I many times missed important one’s. With this, I hope my problem will be sorted out easily. 🙂
Hi Ravi, Well, Moments might not solve your problem. Moments is more about trending tweets and aren’t necessarily from people you follow. But Twitter has decided that these tweets are important so maybe you’ll find new people to follow.
To check out what you missed from people you follow, use the While You Were Away feature on Twitter. I wrote about that in Two Massive Twitter Updates to Help You Find the Best Tweets! https://wonderoftech.com/twitter-search/
Hey Carolyn,
I don’t access Twitter via my phone but when I go to Twitter to log-in I see the mentions and I really like that. I guess it’s kind of like the trending stuff that comes up on Yahoo when you pull it up or some other sites.
I like seeing what’s up and what they’re sharing although I only check it once a day. I still like how this is set up and we can always count on you to show us how to set things up via our phones.
Thanks for these instructions and we can always count on you.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, you can see Moments on Twitter using both your phone and your computer. Since you only check out Twitter once a day, you may find Moments very helpful to catch you up on trending topics for the day.
Hey Carolyn,
Though this option of “moments” hasn’t started in India, but still it seems great. I am sure people are going to like it.
The way you have explained is amazing. Twitter is going to select some great moments. That’s interesting.
I am waiting for this to get launched in all other countries too.
Thanks for letting me know.
Have a nice day.
~Ravi
Hi Ravi, Yes, Moments is interesting, both in topics and in layout. I hope Moments comes to your country soon!
This is a great feature, Carolyn. Thanks for writing about it. It will help with twitter filtering some of the news and other info. I can see myself going to Moments quite often on Twitter.
HI Cathy, Yes, Moments can be very interesting. Sometimes Twitter can feel overwhelming with tweets from everyone you follow. Moments can help you find what’s important and interesting to you.
I hope you enjoy Moments, Cathy!
Well this is the first time i have heard about this cool feature of Twitter. Well thats because i don’t use twitter that much as compared to the serious bloggers with a hell of social media skill. Still i’m in learning process 🙂
Great post again, I really liked it. You are one of my favourite female blogger 🙂
As you mentioned it’s right now available for U.S. peoples only so i think i have to wait till it hits india.
Hi Akash, Yes, no matter how skilled you are at social media, you’ll always find something new to learn. Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech to stay on top of the new features social media sites introduce.
Thanks so much for your very kind words, Akash and for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Amazing…
I’m hearing about Moments for the very first time, may be because it’s not launched in my country yet.
I’ll look out for it as I can already tell it would be big as it’s a huge time-saver.
Thanks for sharing this post.
Dan
Hi Dan, I hope Moments comes to your country soon. Moments is a very interesting feature on Twitter. I find myself checking it daily to find fascinating tweets.