Twitter pairs Trump's big speech to Congress with a new top commentary feature

Twitter is taking a stronger hand in selecting what tweets you see alongside the voice of President Donald Trump.

Timed with the president's first speech to a joint Congress, Twitter released a new feature that surfaces "top commentary" alongside live-streaming video. Twitter's video feed was from PBS NewsHour and included a panel of guests.

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There were 3 million related tweets, making it the most-tweeted State of the Union or Joint Session address so far.

Twitter launched its premium live video experience last year with NFL games. Back then, Twitter surfaced a slightly curated collection of related tweets.

The feature isn't completely new in that Twitter was testing it during the last few games of the NFL season as well as in their partnership with BuzzFeed on the night of the 2016 presidential election and on transfer deadline day with Sky Sports, a Twitter spokesperson said.

Starting Tuesday, there were two columns alongside the video that were available to everyone. The first provided so-called "top commentary," which came from an algorithmically-selected group including journalists like CNBC's Carl Quintanilla and U.S. lawmakers.

The commentators were chosen by a Twitter-made algorithm on who frequently tweets about politics and is seen as an influencer on the platform, according to the Twitter spokesperson. Commentators were not informed of their selection prior to the broadcast and were included only if they tweeted about related topics that night.

The second column selects related tweets based on keyboards and hashtags. Twitter also has a quality filter that curbs pulling in tweets that could be seen as abusive.

There's no column for your own timeline or a different curated feed, but Twitter did release another feature that got some people excited: picture-in-picture video.

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The change comes as Twitter is aggressively pushing its live video content in its quest for profitability. On Monday, Twitter filed its 10-K form with the Securities and Exchange Commission where it sketched out its commitment to live video, including its user-generated streaming video app Periscope.

"We intend to invest in our core use case and in new product areas — such as live streaming video, among others — that further strengthen Twitter’s unique position as the best and fastest place to see and talk about what’s happening in the world," it read.

Twitter is still testing the experience. The spokesperson said the company is still evaluating adding personalization.

This post was updated with insight from a Twitter spokesperson.