Twitter introduces Related Headlines feature to give tweets more context

You’re browsing your Twitter feed when suddenly you come across a tweet that everyone seems to be talking about. Except, you don’t know what it’s all about, forcing you to go digging into the person’s profile to figure out a link. Everyone who’s used Twitter briefly has been in this situation at least once. The micro-blogging website is about to change this.

Twitter has just announced a new feature called “Related Headlines” to help you figure out the context of tweets by linking news stories that have embedded these tweets in their articles. This feature was being tested slyly by the micro-blogging website back in July but had disappeared within hours of being spotted. It looks like Twitter has finally finished its tests and has launched this feature fully for its website.

Related Headlines at work

For example, Twitter displayed a tweet by NBA player Jason Collins who wrote, “All the support I have received today is truly inspirational. I knew that I was choosing the road less traveled but I'm not walking it alone.” Of course, people who do not follow Collins or the news will have a tough time understanding what he’s talking about. Now, once you head on to the tweet, related headlines will show you linked articles in which the tweet was used. It’s then clear that Collins was talking about coming out about his sexuality.

This feature will be available only on the tweet’s permalink page, which can be accessed by clicking on the time-stamp. Embedded tweets will not have the Related Headlines feature attached to them. This feature foes not mean you’ll be provided context to every single tweet. The tweet needs to be a part of a news story to surface. While it isn’t clear if the global rollout is complete yet, you should be able to spot the Related Headlines feature on most tweets sent out by verified accounts, since they’re most likely to be quoted around.

(Cover image credit: Lava360 and WP Clipart)