Twitter's about to introduce Topics. Here's how the new feature works
Now that we're all used to seeing tweets from randos we don't follow in our feeds, Twitter is introducing a new way for you to discover just how many bad opinions are really out there regarding the things you care most about.
Meet Topics.
Essentially, Topics will expand the reach of Twitter functions like following, muting, and adding to Lists beyond individual accounts to include tweets focused on a specific thing. Whether you're into Mars news, Carly Rae Jepsen, or Liverpool FC, you'll be able to follow those interests as you would an account, being served the "top tweets" from "experts, fans or [accounts that] just tend to talk about that thing a lot", according to the Twitter blog.
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To find a topic, just search for it — prompts to follow it will pop up in search results. They'll also be appearing in users' feeds from Nov. 13 as the feature rolls out worldwide, "based on what you tend to look for and already follow on Twitter."
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If you unfollowed all things Golden State Warriors in a fit of frustration, for example, but kept searching their hashtag, Twitter might still recommend the topic or tweets about the team to you — unless you specifically went into your Interests page and unticked it.
(As a side note, that's worth doing anyway — my page had "Accounting" and "UFC" marked as some of my interests and no mention of "Experimental Snacks" whatsoever, which is actually a reassuring sign that the algorithm doesn't have me totally worked out yet.)
Topics will arrive on Web and Android on Nov. 13, but already appears in the sidebar menu on the current version of the Twitter iOS app. As of early Tuesday afternoon, Sydney time, tapping Topics just brings up an introductory screen, and following the prompts to manage your topics only brings you back to the Interests page. But when the feature rolls out in full, it will list the topics you've followed. (It's worth noting that any topics you follow will be visible to anyone who can see your full profile.)
Future features will include topic pages where users can preview what content is included before following, and the ability to add topics to lists, where they'll act like filters to keep your lists focused — fewer tweets about basketball from your fave music journalists in your Music News list, for example.
You'll also be able to mute topics completely — as Twitter product lead Keyvon Beykpour told media in August: "You may decide to turn off politics for the day and only look at puppy Twitter."
Whether muting a topic hides tweets about it from people you do follow isn't clear yet, although Beykpour's comment suggests it might actually do that.
Although notably, topics — which are content-curated via machine learning but whitelisted by humans, so as to avoid trending topic pileups around sensitive subjects — will exclude political matters for now. According to a preview of the topics manager provided to Mashable, the categories span Entertainment, Hobbies and Interests, Sports, Music and Radio, and Gaming.
So in reality, "turning off politics" will likely have to wait for Twitter to work out how they'll be tackling that thorny problem.
For those who already follow a lot of accounts and/or don't use Lists heavily, following a popular topic might find feeds looking even more hectic and crowded.
But hey, there may well be some Good Tweets out there too that you don't know about yet. Like our very selves, the discourse contains multitudes.
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Caitlin is Mashable's Australian Editor. She has written for The Guardian, Junkee, and any number of plucky little music and culture publications that were run on the smell of an oily rag and have since been flushed off the Internet like a dead goldfish by their new owners. She also worked at Choice, Australia's consumer advocacy non-profit and magazine, and as such has surprisingly strong opinions about whitegoods. She enjoys big dumb action movies, big clever action movies, cult Canadian comedies set in small towns, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Replacements, smoky mezcal, revenge bedtime procrastination, and being left the hell alone when she's reading.
