Twitter has launched a number of features this year including the Retweet with comment a feature that allows users to embed a tweet in their own tweets which will see them go beyond Twitter’s 140-character limit. The social network has revealed plans to launch a new feature called Project Lightning, which puts photos and videos of talked-about events front and center on the site. The idea is to highlight trending events — like the NBA finals, the Grammys or the earthquake in Nepal — by running a series of photos, videos and other tweets. On mobile, the images will take up the full smartphone screen. With the revamp, Twitter will be adding a new button in the home row that takes users to the photos, videos and tweets, according to Buzzfeed
The new tool will give the company a way to show the best of Twitter to both logged-in and logged-out users on a variety of platforms. It will have instantly loading videos and rich images, and will occupy a front-and-center location in an upcoming version of the Twitter app.
Twitter has experimented with surfacing event-related content before, starting with its elections.twitter.com subsite in 2008 and continuing through this past week when it prompted users to check out the NBA Finals. But the company never managed to really nail a way for people who weren’t already invested in Twitter to get much out of its real time nature, and that certainly contributed to the drumbeat of critics calling for Costolo’s head.
A Twitter spokeswoman confirmed that Project Lightning is under development but said the company isn’t giving additional details at this time. Twitter is in the middle of a management shakeup, with CEO Dick Costolo exiting and chairman and co-founder Jack Dorsey filling his shoes in the interim. The microblogging site has had a difficult time satisfying Wall Street since it went public in 2013. Analysts say the company has failed to build up new products and lure more users.
The goal with Project Lightning is to get more people looking at Twitter. Since Lightning can be found on Twitter.com for mobile and desktop, as well as in embeds on other websites, people can see the photos, videos and tweets even if they’re not Twitter users. The social network is counting on recruiting new users through these other avenues.
Twitter has been working on Project Lightning since January but it’s still not estimated to roll out for another few months and i’ts working on a marketing campaign to better explain how to use its services.” Twitter did not respond to a request for comment reports cnet.
Related: Twitter users can now share and watch live video broadcasts from their mobile phones
