Twitter Experimenting With 'Reconnect' User Prompt

Much like the Twitter feature we told you about in February, prompting users to "welcome back" tweeps who left and then returned to Twitter, we have another user prompt to share with you: Reconnect. You probably haven't seen it, and who knows if you ever will (more on that below), but it's fun to find out about things before they (potentially) hit mainstream isn't it? Imagine waking up, logging on to Twitter and being prompted, like below, to "reconnect" with someone. Sound a little intrusive? A little . . . creepy? Well, that's just what one smartypants user saw this morning when he logged on to Twitter. Why is he a smartypants? Because he grabbed a screenshot of the prompt before he clicked it closed (always screenshot first, ask questions later, fyi): How does Twitter decide who gets these prompts and who the prompts are about? In the screenshot above, the person who received the prompt said the person he was prompted to reach out to isn't someone he regularly interacts with, so he wasn't really sure where it came from. And doing a bit of our own investigating using the superfantastic Twitter conversation tracker, Conweets, we found that they've never actually interacted on Twitter: How extremely weird, hmm? And yes, @vansau's profile pic is all kinds of awesome. Twitter was not able to share any info on this prompt at this time, but directed us to a blog post detailing how it innovates through experimentation. The post says, in part: In order to offer you the simplest and most engaging Twitter experience, we frequently test hundreds of variations of new features and designs with small groups of users. We test everything from subtle tweaks in the language of our sign-up pages and removing the search box from our homepage to big shifts in navigation elements. These experiments help us understand what experiences people like best or use most often. When an experiment ends, we study the results and roll out the most successful variation to everyone as soon as we can. So it looks like this is one of (potentially) many experiments Twitter has floating around the Twitterverse. If you see any other new features pop up, please send a tip (top right of the page) or hit me up @MaryCLong. Have you been prompted to reconnect with any users? And do you think it would get annoying? HT: @Vansau for sharing the screenshot and pointing out the feature! (Image from Shutterstock)

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Twitter Experimenting With 'Reconnect' User Prompt

Mary C. Long

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Mary C. Long