Twitter’s underrated Lists feature finally gets some attention

Twitter Lists have never gotten the attention they deserve. A feature largely adopted by Twitter power users, lists allow you to create custom timelines by adding only those users whose tweets you want to track. And this can be done without having to also follow those Twitter accounts, which keeps your main timeline clutter-free. But the Twitter Lists feature has always been somewhat buried in Twitter’s interface — at least until now. The company today announced it’s testing a way to make lists easier to access, by relocating them only a swipe away from your home screen.

According to a tweet shared today, Twitter has been thinking about how to make lists easier to get to.

“One idea we had is for you to be able to swipe to your lists from home,” the company explained, followed by a request for feedback.

Customizable timelines that are easy to access? We’re thinking about ways to do this! One idea we had is for you to be able to swipe to your lists from home. If you're in the test tell us what you think! pic.twitter.com/g5WMaNZ57N

— Twitter (@Twitter) June 25, 2019

If you’ve been added to the test, your home timeline will now show dashed lines across the top for each list — a familiar design for anyone who’s ever used Snapchat or Instagram Stories, for example.

From the main timeline, you simply swipe left to move through all your custom timelines, much like you’d advance through Stories.

Lists are especially useful for things you want to track only sometimes — like tweets about a favorite sports team, TV show, or hashtag, perhaps. Or you could make a list of Twitter accounts that tweet cute animal photos, for when the rest of Twitter gets you down. You can also use lists for tracking notable accounts in a given industry, for research purposes, or for following accounts around any other particular interest. You can even use lists as a way to follow someone’s tweets without actually following them.

Lists can also be both public and private, depending on whether you’re looking to share your Twitter curation with the wider world or not.

Twitter didn’t say how many people would be added to the test.

Nor does a test mean the feature is definitely going to launch to the public. But a better interface for accessing lists is something those who use the Lists feature have wanted for some time.

The test is available in Twitter’s mobile app for those who have been opted in.

 

 

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