In its developer Google Group, Twitter has just made the announcement that it is releasing an early preview of a brand new API: The retweeting API. And that’s not all, Twitter is in the process of completely revamping its retweet functionality.
From the looks of it, this could mean some pretty big changes on Twitter. As you can see in the mock-ups above and below, the retweet (written as “RT” in most tweets) is no longer a part of the actual tweet itself, but rather is a link below the tweet. While that certainly is a cleaner way of doing things, it will be interesting to see if this makes retweeting less or more enticing. And it could potentially help users find new people to follow (more on that below).
But as co-founder Biz Stone notes on the Twitter blog, the current method of retweeting on twitter.com is a cumbersome process of copying and pasting. They want to change that. He calls this “Phase One” of “Project Retweet,” and notes that it is going out to developers first so they can be ready for the change, and indicates that it’s not quite ready for prime-time:
We are still sketching out exactly how this feature and its API counterpart works. Sharing our thoughts before launching means developers will have the opportunity to prepare their applications. In a few weeks or so we’ll launch the feature on our web site and because app developers had a chance to prepare, it should become available across most of the Twitter ecosystem about the same time. This way, we can all enjoy retweeting—however we choose to access Twitter.
And the ramifications of this are potentially even larger. With the new method, all of your friends will see the original tweet you’re retweeting in their timeline (unless they have this option turned off). So if I’m not following @ev (Twitter co-founder Evan Williams) in the example that Stone drew to the right, I will still see his tweet in my stream because Stone retweeted it. This seems like a great idea for new follower discovery.
Stone notes that the new retweet look will launch to a limited group of users first for a set period of time so the team can test how it will work on the system. It will then get a wider roll-out in a few weeks.
Writes Twitter developer Marcel Molina in the Twitter developer Google Group about the new API:
Retweeting has become one of the cultural conventions of the Twitter experience. It’s yet another example of Twitter’s users discovering innovative ways to use the service. We dig it. So soon it’s going to become a natively supported feature on twitter.com. It’s looking like we’re only weeks away from being ready to launch it on our end. We wanted to show the community of platform developers the API we’ve cooked up for retweeting so those who want to support it in their applications would have enough time to have it ready by launch day. We were planning on exposing a way for developers to create a retweet, recognize retweets in your timeline and display them distinctively amongst other tweets. We’ve also got APIs for several retweet timelines: retweets you’ve created, retweets the users you’re following have created, and your tweets that have been retweeted by others.
Below find some screenshot mockups of what this will look like.
I was actually surprised by how good this looks, I am truly sick of seeing “RT” down my stream, having it like this would be so much better – assuming they allow us to block these retweets.
indications are that they will allow you to block. i agree, it looks very nice.
One step closer, I hope, to threaded discussions.
One step closer to being friendfeed you mean.
friendfeed; oh, you must mean facebooklite, LOL…..
Jaiku was doing that pre-friendfeed and it was a great way to handle interesting discussions
It may sound stupid, but I can’t help but feel that little twitter sketch up picture in the article was a paid placement for papermate pens. The pen is so perfectly aligned in the shot – not too much to make it obvious, but not so faded or out of central focus that it’s not identifiable.
Paranoid or Suspicious?
You’ve figured out their elusive revenue stream! It’s just like how all the millionaires in Entourage insist on drinking Budweiser with the labels out.
Why It Will Change Twitter for the Better
Do you think it will lead to less RT-ing?
By using the original tweet, does Twitter benefit on bandwidth? Currently, RTs can create several duplicates of the same tweet. I don’t know how big an issue storage is, but there are sure a lot tweets saved somewhere.
And, I like the current “pass it along” sentiment and enjoy seeing the retweeter’s added comment. Perhaps Twitter could allow a 50 character “editorial” comment to their RT function?
Hurry up with this. Looks to be a good new feature that should help spread the word.
looks like they’re copying how Tumblr does their reblogging
Finally. Its about time. It would be a great addition to Twitter bc having to C&P every time you RT gets kinda annoying. Props to Twitter for this move.
Looks like twitter has caught on to the ‘one click RT’ idea that tweetdeck, dailyrt, and tweetmeme have been doing for a while.
Yeah I always wondering why all the other clients had the “RT” while Twitter itself did not. Well its gonna change. YES WE CAN!! … This suit is black not!!
What? Retweet without editing the tweet? What if my retweet crosses 140-characters already?
Lets see though what twitter has planned out!
I’m with you, what if we want to add a comment with the RT? I usually don’t just RT, I like to add a comment so people know why I RT’d.
Hope they have that covered, otherwise it’s going to be annoying.
Exactly.. most of my retweets start with a tiny comment, or end with it.
I won’t like the “Retweet” button with no additional features to cut or elongate the message.
EXACTLY. I typically comment on a retweet. If they are going this route they need to add a optional linkage between the tweet and another tweet which is the retweeter’s commentary on the retweeted tweet.
All too often when I go 2 reTweet, it makes the tweet TOO LONG 2 keep the LINK intact.
So I wind up having 2 shorten the original message a bit 2 make sure others can still utilize the LINK!
I hope Twitter designs their reTweet function 2 let us still keep the WHOLE LINK intact!
You can still copy and paste and edit as you always have, you just can’t use the new embedded RT button to accomplish the same thing.
It’s a bit silly to bake a feature into code that ignores a significant percentage of use.
Agree. “RT” implies an exact copy, but this is rarely the case. I wrote about this for O’Reilly Radar not so long ago: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/07/bantamweight-publishing-in-an.html
I’d rather have the ability to enter a complete 140 char tweet with my own reflections and have a link to the original tweet. Flip it around, Twitter.
+1
+1 and retweeted with comment
+1
+1 I customize RT’s for my list.
That’s what reply is for.
+1
Why not having replies with quote? And a conversation thread like at search.twittter.com
Yeah, but they broke reply. Remember? I’d rather see them get the reply feature back to having the option of seeing all my friend’s tweets even their replies to people I don’t follow.
I wonder what they’ll decide to do that will break retweet when it somehow overloads the system and confuses people.
Speaking of broken replies … the explanation at that time was that having an option about whether to transmit certain messages was too expensive, killing their servers. But here, they offer the option to see or not retweets, and indeed to configure this on a per-retweeter basis. Why is that not even worse?
Agree. Please have the option to customize the (re)tweet message
+1
+1 absolutely need to be able to retweet w/ comment
+1
So true. I almost always edit or comment a retweet.
Oh yeah good point @Chetan. Didnt think about that. And also I read it again but they are tinking of taking away the “RT” from the original tweet. Dont think they should do that. “RT” has become part of Twitter itself. Removing “RT” will cause people to lose interest.
this feature has long been missing and i am glad they are working on it.
finally! I’ve been waiting for them to put something like this out
This is a great feature.
When will they have an @reply API?
they already have the @mentions api
http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-mentions
How will I be able to add my own insightful and witty comments to the original tweet?
+1
I need the ability to snark or praise the item being RTed.
The usefulness of this increases as the level of nested RT increases. Sometimes I see tweets whose first 60 characters are “RT @username RT @username via @username RT @username…” I, for one, will be glad to see it go.
yea – tho if it just the last RTer is listed, we lose the sense of history of the Tweet – and that’s annoying as well (ok, I’m a history major – maybe not so annoying to the rest of the world :>)
This looks pretty cool–good innovation!
It’s about time this was done… can’t wait to see it implemented.
Absolute fail until they allow editing/adding comments to the retweet. Hopefully that is “phase 2.”
Precisely. If twitter were a one-way communication model, this would make sense. But without commenting on the original tweet you can’t add to the conversation.
I am going to have to take the other side of this argument and completely disagree with those of you who have already responded. Does it “clean” up Twitter for the heavy users? Yes. However I feel like every single geek in his parents basement that sits in front of his computer all day is saying “YEAH NO MORE RT” in my stream is losing a bit of the point of a RT. It’s to bring NOTICE of a particular good tweet, bit of information, quote, thought, etc to your own stream. However I feel that the value of the RT is lost when you are caused to search for it, w/ the RT right in front, it’s dead simple recognition. Will it be cleaner? Absolutely no doubt. But for mass adoption, and for what I refer to as #my100 (meaning my 100 closets friends that know technology, but don’t follow it) the concept of noticing a RT and the value goes down without RT. It is part of the Twitter lingo – same as tweetup, failwhale, etc. I think you will see a signifcant drop in RT’s and the value of both being able to notice and spread information with the loss of the RT.
The one plus I see is the saving of 8-15 characters with the RT @coxymoney part of it.
Just my opinions, but I tend to disagree with the majority of the “panels” points so far.
Agree. Twitter should put the two characters “RT” in front of any retweet using this new approach so we can see it. They could even give an option to disable for those who may want to omit it.
Agree. Twitter should put the two characters “RT” in front of any retweet using this new approach so we can see it. They could even give an option to disable for those who may want to omit it.
most apps already carry this feature & have for a long time; twitter is playing catch up to the apps connected to it…it places a “RT” @ the beginning; to omit it, just delete the 2 characters…are we so lazy a society that we need someone else to omit 2 letters for us; geez…
Useless without ability to edit and comment
But who uses the native interface to tweet? I use TweetDeck, and the RT is automatic there. There’s no cutting and pasting… Hardly anyone works straight out of the web-based UI. So why bother?
If you don’t add content to the retweet or risk it exceeding 140chars, it won’t matter to you. Otherwise, it will. Regardless what client you use.
This will be interesting to see if people chose to Retweet more or less after.
Joe Davis has it exactly right. It’s a conversation. I don’t just parrot my friends’ thoughts, I add my own. Will keep using other interfaces that get that.
I’m all for Twitter re-assessing how RT works. But interfering with how users interact is dangerous. The API already includes , , and . If they simply added a field, then client apps would be able to choose how they handled the relationship and users would be free to use the status update however they liked.
You know I think that I have only retweeted once or twice on Twitter (give or take a couple). This sounds cool though, maybe it will prompt me to retweet more often.
I should have known it would cut my fields… here’s that post again….
I’m all for Twitter re-assessing how RT works. But interfering with how users interact is dangerous. The API already includes in_reply_to_status_id, in_reply_to_user_id, and in_reply_to_screen_name. If they simply added a field “retweet_to_status_id”, then client apps would be able to choose how they handled the relationship and users would be free to use the status update however they liked.
This will give more credit to those that actually make the initial tweet, which I appreciate. It appears to be an elegant solution and will hopefully result in a little less re-tweeting.
i agree, it may be a case of less is more.
Will it give credit? or will it end the conversation?
Twitter already includes a “in_reply_to_status_id” field for replies to a specific tweet. But where have you ever seen that data applied in a user interface?
Only in every single 3rd party Twitter applications. Isn’t that what Tweetie and the others use to make their ‘conversation view’?
I’m excited about this, not because we don’t already have retweeting in one click in Twitterface (you hit an icon and it populates the RT & text and then you can change it) but because an API of Retweets specifically allows for things like views of just that and analytics. I am not sure exactly what changes this will mean for our app, but excited to see this long-ignored function make its way into Twitter itself. Great work going on there!
I hope they will not break Twitter like YouTube did yesterday.
YouTube’s new design broke the “”Watch this video in a new window” button.
Surprisingly, none of the tech blogs haven’t noticed that yet.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=36cd5d622d370dd1&hl=en
I am waiting this ReTweet a long time ago.
Looks pretty cool…
This is very useful for people who do several RT and you see RT @user RT @user over and eventually the original message is truncated out of existence.
Very curious to see how hootsuite and tweetdeck manage this.