Twitter Launches ‘Moments’ In Australia

Aussies will be the first Twitter users in the Asia Pacific region to have a new lightning bolt tab called ‘Moments’ which will bring users the very best of Twitter across the biggest topics.

“The idea of Moments is we wanted to create a product that really put the best content in front of users really quickly, connects users with the best experience on Twitter and makes it easier to use,” Twitter Australian curation lead Luke Hopewell told B&T.

“It’s super exciting from a local perspective to be the first in the Asia Pacific. We think there is a lot of really great Moments we can share…every single day there are great moments going on, both in Australia and around the world.”

Unlike the Twitter Timeline which is curated by the user- who they follow, trends which interest them- Moments is curated by Twitter and highlights the best bits which users might miss. The tab is designed to create a narrative around an event or a conversation.

Users are presented with five subcategories (today, news, sports, entertainment and fun) and within each Moment people can trace how the story started, where it went, different reactions, photos and videos from the event.

“We think about Moments as being from the scene or from the source; so everything from an image shared from the protest from someone who just happens to be there to Kanye West arguing on Twitter with Wiz Khalifa,” Twitter Moments global curation lead Andrew Fitzgerald added.

Moments in Australia follows successful launches in the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil. Fitzgerald said feedback from these three launches impacted the Moments product in Australia: “We’ve been making a lot of improvements with Moments since the launch to bring different elements of Twitter into the Moments experience.

“We’ve really been listening to user feedback, so the idea of a personalised Today tab was a major piece of user feedback that we received and so we’ve been working to build that into the product.”

Twitter Moments has been automatically added to Australian users Twitter feeds (Android, iPhone and desktop), so users don’t have to update or download a separate app.

This decision to automatically insert Moments runs with the general ‘ease of access’ of the tab, according to Fitzgerald: “We’re thinking about Moments as a great way for new users or users who haven’t built a full home Timeline yet to experience and understand Twitter; especially to find things that might be outside of the accounts that they already follow.”

Twitter Australia is currently engaging with brands about Promoted Moments strategy, something which will be unveiled after Moments launches. However international brands have responded well to Promoted Moments, Fitzgerald: “When brands get their hands on it there are incredibly creative things they come up with. We’ve seen a lot of brands experimenting with Moments tied to big events, so around the Super Bowl Pepsi had a Promoted Moment around the Half Time Show. So as you saw the Super Bowl on Twitter there was adjacent to that Pepsi’s story about the Half Time Show.”

One of the big benefits of Twitter Moments is Australian stories will be mentioned in Moments internationally, for example Iron Boy was an Australian Moment shared globally:

Iron Boy is the hero we need and deserve right now

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