Twitter update that tells you who’s online is ‘good news for stalkers’ Tech| Innovation
A new twitter update that allows people to see when other users are online has been criticised for leaving people vulnerable to cyber stalking.
Renowned security expert Graham Cluley was among dozens of industry figures to question the new feature, which was introduced to a limited number of Twitter users.
“Good news for stalkers. Twitter is thinking of telling you who's online right now,” Mr Cluley tweeted, along with a sad face emoji.
Status indicators bring Twitter in line with other popular apps, such as Facebook, and are designed to make the platform more “conversational”.
11 useful Twitter features you might not know about
1/11 Turn on Night Mode
Twitter's dark blue Night Mode is a lot easier on your eyes than its regular, vibrant theme. On the site, you can enable it by clicking your profile photo (on the right-hand side of the bar at the top of the screen) and selecting Night Mode.
On Android and iOS, you need to tap your profile picture at the top of the screen and select Night Mode.
2/11 Lengthen your tweets
A “small group” of users are no longer restricted by Twitter's 140-character tweet limit. Even if you're not a chosen one, you can double your limit to 280 characters on desktop by downloading the Tampermonkey plugin, going to https://gist.github.com/Prof9/c16fc4997e0ef5b22a15c43edd7f5f49, clicking Raw and then Install.
3/11 Improve search
Twitter's regular search tool can be a little messy, but Advanced Search makes it much easier for you to find specific things. Go to https://twitter.com/search-advanced and filter your search by word, hashtag, exact phrase, location, date and account.
4/11 Disable read receipts
Like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, Twitter's direct messaging service shows you when your messages have been seen by the person you sent them to. You can disable read receipts though.
On Android, iOS and the site, go to Settings and Privacy, click on Privacy and Safety and disable read receipts.
5/11 Monitor your tweets
Retweets and Likes only form part of the story, as far as tweet engagement is concerned. You can view a lot more information about how people have reacted to your updates, including the number of times they've been seen and the number of times people have interacted with them.
Just open your tweets and hit the View Tweet Activity button.
6/11 Trim the fat
If you feel like you're drowning in push notifications, you can cut down the number you receive from Twitter by going to Settings, Notifications, Push Notifications and deselecting the types of notifications you wouldn't like to receive.
You can also enable sleep settings, which allow you to switch off all mobile updates during certain hours of the day. On the site, go to Settings, Mobile and select your hours.
7/11 Save data
You can stop videos from playing automatically on desktop and the Twitter app. On the site, you can do this by going to Settings, Account, Video Tweets and unchecking Video Autoplay.
On both the Android and iOS versions of the app, go to Settings, General, Data Usage, Video Autoplay, and choose between Mobile data & Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Only, and Never.
8/11 Save even more data
You can save even more data and completely transform your timeline in the process by disabling images. Just go to Settings, Data Usage and uncheck the Image Previews box.
9/11 Customise your profile
Editing your Twitter profile is really straightforward, just go to your profile and click the large Edit Profile button. However, there's one customisation option that's easy to miss.
As well as your name, bio and profile photos, you can change your colour scheme. The option is only available on the Twitter site, and is sandwiched between the Website and Birthday sections.
10/11 Browse properly
One of the Twitter app's most annoying features is its in-app browser, which links automatically open up in. You can sacrifice it for your favourite mobile browser by going to Settings, Display and Sound and unchecking the Use In-App Browser box.
11/11 Subscribe to tweets
You can set up alerts that let you know whenever a certain account tweets, but it's a two-stage process.
First, on the app, go to Settings, Notifications, Push Notifications, Tweets and turn the toggle button on. Then open the profile page of the account you want to receive notifications from, tap the Bell icon next to the Following button and choose between All Tweets, Only Live Video and Off.
1/11 Turn on Night Mode
Twitter's dark blue Night Mode is a lot easier on your eyes than its regular, vibrant theme. On the site, you can enable it by clicking your profile photo (on the right-hand side of the bar at the top of the screen) and selecting Night Mode.
On Android and iOS, you need to tap your profile picture at the top of the screen and select Night Mode.
2/11 Lengthen your tweets
A “small group” of users are no longer restricted by Twitter's 140-character tweet limit. Even if you're not a chosen one, you can double your limit to 280 characters on desktop by downloading the Tampermonkey plugin, going to https://gist.github.com/Prof9/c16fc4997e0ef5b22a15c43edd7f5f49, clicking Raw and then Install.
3/11 Improve search
Twitter's regular search tool can be a little messy, but Advanced Search makes it much easier for you to find specific things. Go to https://twitter.com/search-advanced and filter your search by word, hashtag, exact phrase, location, date and account.
4/11 Disable read receipts
Like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, Twitter's direct messaging service shows you when your messages have been seen by the person you sent them to. You can disable read receipts though.
On Android, iOS and the site, go to Settings and Privacy, click on Privacy and Safety and disable read receipts.
5/11 Monitor your tweets
Retweets and Likes only form part of the story, as far as tweet engagement is concerned. You can view a lot more information about how people have reacted to your updates, including the number of times they've been seen and the number of times people have interacted with them.
Just open your tweets and hit the View Tweet Activity button.
6/11 Trim the fat
If you feel like you're drowning in push notifications, you can cut down the number you receive from Twitter by going to Settings, Notifications, Push Notifications and deselecting the types of notifications you wouldn't like to receive.
You can also enable sleep settings, which allow you to switch off all mobile updates during certain hours of the day. On the site, go to Settings, Mobile and select your hours.
7/11 Save data
You can stop videos from playing automatically on desktop and the Twitter app. On the site, you can do this by going to Settings, Account, Video Tweets and unchecking Video Autoplay.
On both the Android and iOS versions of the app, go to Settings, General, Data Usage, Video Autoplay, and choose between Mobile data & Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Only, and Never.
8/11 Save even more data
You can save even more data and completely transform your timeline in the process by disabling images. Just go to Settings, Data Usage and uncheck the Image Previews box.
9/11 Customise your profile
Editing your Twitter profile is really straightforward, just go to your profile and click the large Edit Profile button. However, there's one customisation option that's easy to miss.
As well as your name, bio and profile photos, you can change your colour scheme. The option is only available on the Twitter site, and is sandwiched between the Website and Birthday sections.
10/11 Browse properly
One of the Twitter app's most annoying features is its in-app browser, which links automatically open up in. You can sacrifice it for your favourite mobile browser by going to Settings, Display and Sound and unchecking the Use In-App Browser box.
11/11 Subscribe to tweets
You can set up alerts that let you know whenever a certain account tweets, but it's a two-stage process.
First, on the app, go to Settings, Notifications, Push Notifications, Tweets and turn the toggle button on. Then open the profile page of the account you want to receive notifications from, tap the Bell icon next to the Following button and choose between All Tweets, Only Live Video and Off.
The new update comes alongside something called threaded conversations, which means replies to tweets are easier to follow.
Sara Haider, Twitter's director of product management, announced the updates over Twitter and received almost 3,000 replies.
“Hey Twitter, we've been playing with some rough features to make it feel more conversational here,” Ms Haider tweeted. “Still early and iterating on these ideas. Thoughts?”
Dozens of replies included criticism of the online status feature, with many Twitter users saying they disliked apps that showed online status for privacy reasons.
Ms Haider responded to one sceptical Twitter user by saying the platform is experimenting with ways to signal specifically when someone is online and looking to have a conversation.
“There's something about being avail for conversation *right now*,” she tweeted. “Like for example, checking Twitter silently while distracted a meeting, vs being on the train for 45 mins [sic].”
In a separate response, Ms Haider said users should be in “full control” of showing their online status.
Privacy advocates have previously criticised Twitter for failing to adequately protect its users from harassment.
Other new updates that Twitter is currently considering include a feature that suggests which accounts someone might want to unfollow.
A recent trial of the function was recently carried out to see if it would boost user engagement, though it is unclear whether Twitter plans to roll it out on a wider scale.
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