A trend that we’re starting to see social media platforms do these days is to “borrow” features from each other. For example Instagram’s Stories feature is similar to Snapchat’s own Stories features. According to a recent discovery by researcher Jane Manchun Wong (via CNET), Twitter could also be thinking of borrowing some features from Snapchat.
This would come in the form of a “News Camera” feature where posts made using the feature would be called “Moments”. If this sounds familiar, it is because the company had previously removed the original Moments feature from their apps back in October, but if this sighting is true, it would suggest that Twitter was simply looking for revamp it.
Twitter's new Snapchat-style Camera, codenamed "News Camera" is coming soon!
Posts created by News Camera will be called "Moments" pic.twitter.com/54TZeXh1IC
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 14, 2019
So how does the News Camera feature work? At the moment it is unclear and we only have a video from Matt Navarra which demonstrated an early version of it. Basically users can take photos, videos, and host live streams where they will be able to overlay additional information such as location details and more to provide more context to their photos or videos.
We’re not sure how much has changed or will change upon the feature being fully released to the public, so we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime Twitter has confirmed that they are working on it but do not have a timeline for its release. “I can confirm that we’re working on an easier way to share thing like images and videos on Twitter. What you’re seeing is in mid-development so it’s tough to comment on what things will look like in the final stage. The team is still actively working on what we’ll actually end up shipping.”
NEW! Twitter is testing a ‘News Camera’ feature…
Let’s you add location details and colour overlays to photos, videos, or live streams.
Has a redesigned composer UI too.
First spotted by me here: https://t.co/s455vYgumy pic.twitter.com/P11XxOkGva
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) February 14, 2019
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