Twitter giving people more control over conversations in India

According to a 2019 Twitter report, 51 per cent of Twitter's Indian users Tweet in English and 49 per cent in languages other than English.

New Delhi: Twitter is giving people more control over the conversations in India and is adding different conversation formats to empower people with choices and make them more comfortable in conversations, the micro-blogging platform said on Sunday.

According to a 2019 Twitter report, 51 per cent of Twitter’s Indian users Tweet in English and 49 per cent in languages other than English.

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“We are grateful to be able to provide a space that people can turn to for keeping themselves informed, connected and entertained, no matter where they are from and what language they Tweet in,” Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director, Twitter India, told IANS.

Twitter India said that it is giving people more control with new conversation settings, which lets people select who can respond to their Tweet.

“The hope is to keep out unwanted replies from getting in the way of meaningful conversations”.

The company recently announced the test rollout of a new way to have conversations about fleeting thoughts on the service — Fleets.

“They disappear after 24 hours and there aren’t any Likes, Retweets, or public replies. India was the third market globally after Brazil and Italy where we rolled out this feature to test,” the company informed.

Another test rollout, voice Tweets, provides a more human touch to the way we use Twitter. Each voice Tweet captures up to 140 seconds of audio.

“For people who prefer to chat through direct messages (DMs), we introduced a new interface for it on the web, which allows people to send and receive DMs without having to leave the timeline,” Twitter India informed.

Twitter is unique as a global public conversation service that shows people what’s happening right now and where people come to join relevant conversations.

Moreover, without packed arenas, the platform has also become the roar of the stadium, including the ongoing IPL 13 cricket tournament.

“Sports enthusiasts come to Twitter for real-time match updates and for the special social experience of watching a game with other fans,” Twitter India said.

Gaming conversations too are on an all-time high too with over 1 billion Tweets sent in the first half of 2020.

India ranks eighth on the list of countries that have tweeted about gaming most often in 2020 to date.

“Now with the return of live cricket, fans of the game on Twitter are pumped”.

Ahead of the IPL 13, Twitter launched nine special team emojis, which can be activated by hashtags in English and six Indian languages.

“Through these nine emojis, fans will be able to show instant support to their favourite team. Fans will also be able to follow and participate in live conversations. Stay tuned for more updates and follow the opening game #MIvCSK this September 19 on Twitter”.

More importantly, in recent times, it has seen Twitter’s ability to instantaneously connect people to the help they are seeking, with good samaritans utilising the power of the real-time service to help one another.

“Over the years, public conversations on Twitter have shaped popular discourse and contemporary culture. The service is brimming with diverse conversations across a range of interest-based themes such as food, science, photography, pets, parenting, and so much more,” the micro-blogging platform elaborated.