Twitter's new Engage app makes it easier for celebs to handle their fans
A decent chunk of Twitter's early success came from its adoption by major celebrities as a way to speak directly to their fans -- with the occasional chance for those fans to speak back.
Now, Twitter is putting a bit more of a barrier between celebrities and the average user.
Twitter has launched a new app -- Engage -- that offers people with a big following a way to more easily handle their accounts.
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It also provides a tool for these Twitter celebs to see only the important people that respond to them -- let's call it a plebe filter.
"Twitter Engage surfaces the most important follows and @mentions from influencers and loyal fans, providing an effortless way to stay plugged into Twitter," the company wrote in a blog post announcing Engage.
Engage also provides users with more data tools that track retweets, mentions, video views and more.
Twitter announced its new Engage paltform on Tuesday, touting it as a way for "the world's most influential creators to connect with their fans."
Of course, celebrities can already connect with their fans on Twitter. Engage theoretically makes it harder to get to celebs.
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"Through Tweets, you can share content and have conversations with fans and other influencers in real time — and now we’ve made it easier to manage those daily interactions and measure success," Twitter said in the blog post.
Engage is similar in some respects to Facebook's Mentions app, launched in July 2014 as a way for people with large followings to manage their pages.
Engage is currently available to all users on iOS in the U.S.
Engage's widespread availability theoretically makes it a tool for even casual users to limit the amount of abuse and trolling they encounter on Twitter.
That could be a step forward for a company that has endured near-constant criticism for its reticence to do much about the abuse that some users face on Twitter.
Then again, Engage's reliance on verified pages could go too far in an attempt to make a better experience.
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Some Twitter power users applauded the new app. CNBC pundit Jim Cramer tweeted "More good things at Twitter" in reference to the news.
Entrepreneur Anil Dash also mostly welcomed the app, noting that he was happy to see that "Twitter is trying things that any user can use to reduce abuse."
Topics Social Media X/Twitter
Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.
