Twitter Introduces Happening Now Feature

Twitter is offering a new feature and it is called Happening Now. What the feature does basically is highlight numerous tweets revolving a specific trending topic, with emphasis on sports primarily, as well as on other news related to entertainment, and other current events. According to the social media giant, this latest feature is now being deployed to Android and iOS platforms.

The new Happening Now feature may remind Twitter users of another current feature, Moments. Like Happening Now, Moments also served as a means for people to learn more about a certain topic in sports, entertainment, or news. Moments, however, leans more toward telling a story, with image and video elements. On the other hand, the Happening Now feature (as its name suggests) focuses on what is happening right now, literally.

So how exactly are tweets highlighted with Happening Now? Events that are “happening now” are displayed at the top of the Twitter timeline, and users can just horizontally swipe through these events. By the way, each event is shown with a title and an accompanying picture. For example, when a live sports event is being featured, users can tap on that event and immediately be provided with the latest scores, as well as tweets talking about the event.

Over the years, users have learned to be resourceful when making use of Twitter in getting updated with regards to an ongoing event or topic. Perhaps the simplest method is to browse for tweets using a specific hashtag. And with regards to major live events, Twitter has already done well in displaying video streams of those events live. 

In some ways, the Happening Now feature is designed to further speed up that process. Thus, potentially interesting events are displayed on the Twitter timeline. And Twitter has made a wise decision to make the feature work even without hashtags. This way, tweets that do not come with hashtags can still be included.

While Happening Now might be useful for those looking to Twitter to get the latest news and check out the latest happenings, it might also annoy users who do not want their feeds flooded with tweets about whatever sports game is going on at the moment. And it can be argued that what made Twitter appealing in the first place was the sheer simplicity of its interface -- you can just tweet about something or scroll down your feed when you want to check out what people you are following are into.