Twitter Testing New Conversation Features From Twttr App, to Roll Out Next Year

Twitter is testing new features aimed at making it easier for users to follow the flow of conversations through such methods as threaded replies and other visual cues. The features were first tested on Twttr, the prototype app Twitter launched earlier this year, TechCrunch reported on Thursday. With the new features, thin grey lines thread the replies to the original post. The new features were spotted on Twitter by noted reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong.

"Twitter Web App is testing reddit-like conversation tree. The concept first appeared on its experimental Twttr iOS app, and now it might come to the web app too! It helps keeping track of the flow of conversation," she tweeted earlier this month, and followed it up with " Twitter continues working on Conversation Tree... now with the ability to focus a specific tweet, even from a permalink," earlier this week.

Twttr was to be launched with the aim of publicly experimenting with new features to Twitter user interface to gather feedback before actually rolling out these changes to all the users. The prototype Twitter app has so far focused mainly on how threaded conversations would look.

Currently, Twttr labels the poster of the original tweet with a little microphone icon, similar to Reddit.

"Twitter confirmed what she found is part of the company's broader plan to bring twttr's features to Twitter — a rollout that will take place next year, a spokesperson said. However, not all the features discovered by Wong will be a part of the launch — just the “best parts” of twttr," TechCrunch reported.