Twitter announced the change in a blog post today. Moments originally launched in 2015 as a way to see the main events of the day in a short snapshot format. Tweets are grouped together into collections on a subject that you can swipe through to learn the whole story. Initially, Moments were curated by Twitter but users are now able to create their own.
The new Explore tab moves the focus away from Moments, marking Twitter’s drive to expose more content from across its network. Moments will still be available but they’ll be positioned alongside other material with a wider focus.
The top of the Explore tab contains a universal search bar to let you find tweets and users. Below, you’ll find the redesigned Moments view, showing the top Moments of the day in a list. Tapping the “More” button will load additional Moments so you can read more news.
Explore contains much more than just Moments though. It’s also an entry point to Twitter’s live video features, letting you see when someone you follow is streaming so you can start to watch. Streaming videos will be positioned prominently in the feed, letting you tap to view.
Current trends on Twitter are showcased in Explore too. You can monitor popular hashtags and topics of conversation from across the platform. Combined with Moments, it gives you an at-a-glance view of what’s going on in the world.
Twitter has already tested the new feature with a small number of users. Feedback was positive with people particularly keen on the ability to find news and trending topics on one screen. Twitter sees Explore as a way to wrap Twitter’s features outside your Timeline into one starting page, letting you see currently discussed topics in Trending and the day’s most popular headlines in Moments.
“Until today, you had to go to a few different places to find each of these experiences,” said Twitter. “As part of our continued efforts to make it easier to see what’s happening, we’re bringing all these together. Very soon, you’ll be able to find trends, Moments, search, and the best of live video, all within the new Explore tab.”
Explore is part of Twitter’s ongoing work to simplify itself and become more user-friendly. In the past year, the company has been streamlining its platform, removing much of its confusing tweet syntax and loosening the character limit. Twitter hopes the changes will widen its appeal, enabling it to grow its stagnant user numbers.
The Explore tab will begin rolling out today to users of Twitter’s iOS app. It will release on Android in the coming weeks. There’s currently no timeframe for a launch on the web or Windows 10. Twitter said it would continue to listen to user feedback to improve the feature and make it a more useful experience.
