Twitter remained to be one of the most popular social media platforms today. Ever since it was launched in 2006, Twitter’s unique charm seemingly never fades. Twitter allows users to broadcast short messages which are referred to as “tweets”. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, the number of characters you can post on Twitter are limited. From 140 characters, it was doubled to 280 characters last 2017. Twitter is also known for popularizing hashtags and online trending topics. If you want to know the latest trending and hottest topic today, Twitter is definitely the perfect platform to visit.

How Does Twitter Work

With over 2 billion users worldwide, I guess everybody knows how this app works and it doesn’t require much explanation. Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter comes with a very simple interface that everyone can easily navigate. Once downloaded, the app prompts you to the dashboard with four main tabs to navigate. The Home icon takes you your newsfeed showcasing all the “tweets” from your friends and from the people you follow. The Discover tab, on the other hand, features the latest trend worldwide and in your country. It also features the current events in its “What’s Happening Section”. You can also search specific users or personalities by inputting their names on the search bar.

The Notification tab will showcase all the notifications including the people who mentioned you as well as those tweets that have been “retweeted” by other users. The Messages tab, on the other hand, features all your private messages (messages that are directly and privately sent by other users). Twitter allows you to interact in many ways. You can compose your own tweet (just make sure that it will not exceed 280 characters). You can share audio and video files as long as they will not exceed the 140-second mark. For the newsfeed, users can reply, retweet, heart, and share the tweets. Retweeting allows you to share someone else’s tweet on your own timeline while sharing allows you to share tweets to various social media platforms like Facebook, Viber, and many others.

Hashtags and Twitter Trends

The hashtag was first used in Twitter by Chris Messina in 2007 and since then, the platform adapted the process. You can create a hashtag by simply inputting a number sign (#) followed by any characters (no spaces) along with your tweet. This is how Twitter identifies the latest trends. When hashtags became popular, they will soon appear on Twitter’s trending topics. The Trending topics are sorted and organized based on your geographical area but users can configure the setting and change it to worldwide trends or any particular country.

Hashtags can help users in many interesting ways. You can use hashtags to find people that share the same interest with you. You can also use these hashtags as part of an awareness campaign, political or social events, and many others. You can also use the hashtags to search for a topic you want. Recently, Twitter also added Live streaming capabilities that connect influencers to their beloved fans.

Verdict

Despite the bigger changes in other social media platforms, it is nice to see how Twitter remained faithful to its core function. It provides users simple yet easy-to-use tools. The simplicity of this app has become its greatest strength and everyone is still embracing the benefits they can get from this amazing app. Whether you want to be updated with the latest trends or you want to discover new friends that share the same interest with you, this social media platform is just the right place for you. Currently, Twitter is available for both Android and iOS devices and you can download this app absolutely for free.

Download Twitter