Twitter has made notable changes to its Moments feature, allowing users to click on links within individual Moments and automatically redirect to the more streamlined Google AMP pages on iOS and Android.
What are Google AMP Pages and Twitter Moments?
Google AMP is an optimised version of the existing HTML framework. It was designed by the internet search giant as an open source solution that other websites could utilise to make browsing faster and less resource intensive. Currently, a number of well-known publishers are utilising this new technology, which Twitter can now automatically detect for. Twitter aggregates many tweets, links, images and videos into tabs called Moments; they tell stories about the latest happenings around the world, but delving deeper into these stories has always been a slow and cumbersome experience of mobile and tablet users – hence the changes that have now been made.
What Changes Has Twitter Made to Moments?
Twitter has made two changes to the Moments section of their site. Both these changes focus on the links that are contained within the Moments tabs. The first change now allows users to click on links within a tab, rather than having to navigate to a tweet and then access the content from there, which is a process that was viewed as rather cumbersome. The second change is all about reducing the loading times when users click on links. Rather than directing to a regular page, Twitter now automatically redirects users to the aforementioned Google AMP pages where available, making loading times on mobile devices considerably faster. AMP HTML achieves this by reducing the number of Java processes involved in loading pages, which in turn affects the level of advertising that can appear.
How Does this Affect Publishers and End Users?
For publishers sharing their content on Twitter Moments, these changes will allow users to explore links more easily and navigate streamlined pages on mobile devices – opening up the possibility to direct a greater share of the Twitter audience to their sites. Mobile users account for a large proportion of internet traffic, so creating the best mobile experience possible for users originating from Twitter will help both the users and the publishers. The publishers can tell their stories in more detail and users can be more informed about the things they’re reading about and watching.
As a result of these alterations to Twitter Moments, the problem of keeping users in AMP HTML when the adverts they’re seeing might redirect to the regular internet needs to be addressed. Stay tuned to find out how Twitter and the advertising brands will address this issue.
