
Now on Twitter: Group direct messages and mobile video camera - alexbate
https://blog.twitter.com/2015/now-on-twitter-group-direct-messages-and-mobile-video-capture
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strict9
And yet still the worst photo sharing experience of any social platform. 5mb
upload limit, constant upload failures with cryptic error messages, and
clicking an image only to see a smaller version aren't a great experience.

I'm skeptical of what they'll do with video.

edit: lack of retina support for images is also inexcusable.

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frostmatthew
> clicking an image only to see a smaller version

I feel Twitter's UI has always been pretty sensible - but I've always been
baffled by this quirk.

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dewey
With the speed they are shipping updates for the official mac app it should be
possible to use the group messaging in about 2 years.

~~~
rscott
And yet it's still one of the best Twitter clients on any platform. Thank you,
Loren Britchter.

~~~
Cbeck527
Have you used Tweetbot?

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rscott
I use it on iOS and love it, but didn't feel like paying $20 for a Twitter
client on the desktop.

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danso
About 4 years ago, I was chatting with a journalist via Twitter and when we
had to discuss details, he told me, "I don't check my email, just DM
me"...which profoundly annoyed me. Now, I have to admit, if someone DM's me, I
almost always immediately respond. Part of it is because DMs, for me, still
pale in quantity compared to emails, so I naturally notice them faster. I
think it also works because of why Twitter works overall...the truncated
message length is both an impediment to communication and a lowering-of-
friction...unlike email, I don't feel like I have to come up with a well-
composed or complete response...nor should the DMer expect more of me (or else
they should've gone through email).

So the group DMing makes sense...it's not an innovation, but continues to keep
people in the Twitter system. Their photo app functionality had been crap for
awhile, but between the extra steps needed to go through Instagram (nevermind
the lack of previews), the photo app is just good enough to entice the user to
not leave the Twitter app.

I'm surprised they haven't tried to implement Snapchat-like functionality,
frankly.

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bobwise
This sentence grossed me out:

"The Twitter you experience today is rich and immersive, full of images, gifs,
Vines, audio files and videos from some of the world’s most recognizable
figures and brands."

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rscott
Then you'll absolutely love their "strategy statement".

"Reach the largest daily audience in the world by connecting everyone to their
world via our information sharing and distribution platform products and be
one of the top revenue generating Internet companies in the world."

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kmfrk
Are group DMs supported through the API for third-party clients?

The direct capture and upload has been sorely needed, should make on-the-
ground reporting much easier.

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forgueam
There is a third-party service called GroupTweet that has been doing something
similar for years... [http://www.grouptweet.com](http://www.grouptweet.com)

Curious how this will affect their service.

~~~
rcraft
Group DMs are not yet available through the API. Its not clear if/when they
will make Group DMs available via the API.

As for GroupTweet, only a small subset of our users use GroupTweet for Group
DM type purposes. I'm optimistic that this native functionality will educate
the masses on the possibilities of Twitter Group DM's which will lead "power
users" to look to GroupTweet to provide a more "full featured" group DM
experience.

Working on a blog post to illustrate the GroupTweet advantages, but things
like:

1) A GroupTweet Group DM account is permanent compared to a more ephemeral
Group DM thread. No need to figure out who to add to the conversation each
time, etc.

2) Never lose your messages. Full archival capabilities & storage with a
GroupTweet Group DM account. Twitter will only display your 100 most recent DM
conversations.

3) No limit on number of group members vs Twitter's native Group DM limit of
20 people.

4) Full control over who is included the the Group DM. With Twitter's native
functionality, any group member can invite anyone else into the conversation.
With GroupTweet, the group admin(s) have full control over who is allowed in
the group, who has posting privileges vs read-only, etc.

5) With a GroupTweet group DM account, you get all the advantages of a full
fledged Twitter account. Things like Twitter analytics, GroupTweet contributor
analytics (which members are participating & sending the best messages),
downloading your Tweet history, linkable messages, etc.

6) More customizable notifications. Not all or nothing approach for regular
DMs.

7) GroupTweet Group DM's will work with every Twitter client. If you try and
start a Group DM with your friends that are using Tweetbot, Hootsuite, or any
other third party twitter client, they won't receive the message.

Here's my post from earlier this month re: creating a GroupTweet Group DM
account: [http://grouptweet.com/blog/how-to-create-private-twitter-
gro...](http://grouptweet.com/blog/how-to-create-private-twitter-groups-
twitter-group-dms-are-possible)

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webwanderings
A long, long time ago, email was invented. Then soon enough, someone created
email lists (groups).

No one has invented anything new in this regard, since then.

~~~
VLM
Its a pity you're getting downvoted for insight. One problem twitter has is
lack of innovation. Then again they have users who are self selected to be
used to it, or are even happy with that.

Kind of the AOL of the modern era, if you think of AOL culturally in the 90s,
twitter is in the same spot today.

There is also a lack of purpose, lack of elevator pitch. By that I mean I
don't know what twitter is for. Originally, right after I found out about it
WRT SXSW, its the AOL-ified IRC on top of SMS text messages. Then it morphed
into brand spam delivery for AOL users who can't figure out RSS from either
the spammer or recipient side, be sure to follow our corporate PR dept
because... well just because. Now its apparently going to be the AOL of photo
sharing for those too confused by the complexities of facebook photo sharing
and snapchat. But what is it, assuming my joke about them being the AOL of
2015 isn't just a joke (or ... is it?)

~~~
webwanderings
You are correct, and thank you for the support of the comment above. WRT
Twitter=RSS, I cannot lament enough the fact that RSS has been treated like an
abandoned child, only because there is Twitter. WRT AOL, well, there's also
Facebook, which is a de facto Internet today (rightly or wrongly, that's a sad
debate).

~~~
bvm
The old twitter, which offered RSS of users' Twitter timelines and searches
made a lot of sense, it was a real shame to see it go.

Combining tweets about [subject of choice] inline with your favourite
subreddits and websites, all filterable and searchable (with the right client)
was a brilliant innovation.

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sriram_sun
So are they trying to be Whatsapp, only with a character limit?

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Urgo
Are these only on ios now? I can't see any option to do either of these things
on android or the web

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winry
I don't like having private conversations on twitter for some reason, I guess
having it is better than not but it's hard to feel excited about it. On the
bright side I think this could be very useful for networking between famous
people.

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duaneb
> On the bright side I think this could be very useful for networking between
> famous people.

Welcome to twitter.

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infomofo
So now when your friend's account gets hacked it can be way more annoying?
Because that's seriously all my DMs ever are.

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Arsenije
Share emoji.

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UserRights
But who will ever again trust an US company with private group communication
after they put so much effort into converting into a salafist-stalinist-stasi-
like surveillance state and after such a long time of the Snowden revelations
there is still no real sign of the US people, the companies and the
communities are able to get rid of their mentally distorted secret dictators?

It is such a shame. A nation that was the synonym for freedom is now the world
role model for how a postmodern dictatorship looks like. Please, all you
freedomlovers, finally wake up and change it, I do not see any sane
alternative than reverting USA back to a free country...

