Beginner users or old tweeters, discover these tips and hidden functions to master Twitter at your fingertips.
Whether you are a frequent and long-time Twitter user or a newcomer, the social network contains many functions that are often overlooked. On the platform, the majority of users are content to post tweets, retweet, or react to trending hashtags.
Yet Twitter offers many features which, when fully mastered, can make the social network a formidable monitoring and research tool. Discover a selection of tips and hidden functions you need to know to master Twitter like no one else.
1. Show the most recent tweets first
Twitter offers two ways to display tweets on your timeline: most popular tweets first, or most recent tweets first.
To change this view, from the Twitter home page, simply click on the small stars icon at the top right of the timeline.
You will then see the title of your timeline change, depending on whether you have chosen to display the Latest Tweets, or the Home where the most popular tweets are grouped.
2. Create private lists
If you use Twitter, there is a good chance that you are using the social network to follow or monitor certain domains. If the social network offers to create lists, they are natively public and accessible to all users.
However, it is possible to create lists that will only be visible to you. To do this, go to the Lists menu to Create a list. Below the name and description of the list, check the Make private box to be the only one who can access it.
3. Post a tweet with an existing video
Just saw a video go by that you wish you could share without having to retweet the full post? It’s possible. To do this, copy the URL of the tweet containing the video by clicking on the share button then choosing Copy Tweet link, then open the window for composing a new tweet to paste the URL there. At the end of the latter, delete all the elements located after the series of numbers if there are any, and add / video / 1.
You should get a URL like:
https://twitter.com/01net/status/1330094324428705798/video/1
Complete your tweet by adding the message you want to post and click on Tweet to post your tweet.
4. Cut your long tweets into threads
Although the 140 character limit for a tweet has been abolished to 280 characters in 2017, some messages that are still too long cannot be published on Twitter as is. While some opt for the easy way out by posting a screenshot of their written message in a note-taking application, others will prefer to multiply the messages by posting several tweets one after the other.
Twitter has foreseen the blow and proposes to the writing of a tweet, to add another one to create a Thread, in other words, a discussion which will allow you to publish all that you have to say in one go. All you have to do is click on the small + button next to the Publish button.
Too bad the social network does not offer to perform the operation automatically by cutting your tweets too long to make a thread.
5. Master the keyboard shortcuts
They are invisible, hardly anyone uses them, but they exist. Twitter, like many online services, offers keyboard shortcuts for faster access to certain features: N to post a New tweet, Ctrl + Enter to send it, M to write a private message, / to search on the platform, etc.
You can find the complete list of Twitter shortcuts by clicking on the More menu from the sidebar, then going to the page dedicated to Keyboard shortcuts.
6. Activate the data saver
If you are using Twitter from an Internet connection where the data envelope is limited, it is better to be economical and activate the option to reduce data consumption.
From the web interface, in the side menu, click on More and go to the Settings and privacy menu. Then enter Accessibility, display and languages, then go to Data usage.
Check the Data saver option, and take the opportunity to limit the Automatic playback of videos by accessing the appropriate menu.
7. Customize the Twitter interface
Twitter offers the possibility to customize the color of the interface as well as the accent color of the web version. To do this, click on the More menu from the side column, and go to the View menu.
You’ll be able to change the default background to a dark blue or black display, choose a different accent color, and even be able to change the font size.
8. Consult the statistics of your tweets
If you’re planning on starting a career as an influencer on Twitter, you might be interested in knowing the reach of the tweets you post. Beyond retweets and likes, Twitter offers the possibility of accessing statistics on your tweets, and more generally on your account.
To see the audience for a tweet you’ve posted, click on the little bar icon.
A Tweets Statistics window will then appear, showing you the number of Impressions (number of views of the tweet), as well as the number of total Engagements (interaction with the tweet, such as opening an image). You can find out more by clicking on See all commitments.
In addition to these statistics, Twitter also offers access to a more comprehensive dashboard on your account. You can access it by clicking on More, then on Statistics. The new page that opens in front of you will offer you an overview of the overall statistics of your account.
9. Mask Fleets
Recently, Twitter succumbed to the sirens of stories on its mobile applications. Responding to the name of Fleets, these stories that take place in a banner displayed at the top of the timeline cannot officially be deactivated. However, to avoid fleets from the nastier accounts you follow, but strive to follow, it’s possible to hide the ones that bother you.
To do this, tap and hold the Fleets of an account and choose to Hide it. In the pop-up that appears, tap Hide Fleets.
10. Have muted conversations
In the same way that you can hide Fleets, it is possible to ask Twitter to mute certain discussions. Particularly useful if you have dared to post a message with which other Twitter users do not agree, this option will save you the many notifications of unnecessary replies.
To mute a discussion, go to the offending tweet, click the options button shown by three dots, and click Hide this conversation.
11. Schedule the sending of tweets
In recent months, Twitter has offered the possibility of scheduling the sending of a publication from its Web interface. The manipulation, relatively simple, is to be carried out directly from the tweet publication window where you can choose the date, but also the time of sending the message.
12. Hide words
Twitter is undoubtedly the social network for spoilers. Each day after the release of an episode of a successful series, the reactions fuse on the platform, thus spoiling the surprise to those who have not yet had the opportunity to watch the episode.
To avoid this, it is possible to configure your account so that Twitter hides certain words. It will also be very useful for filtering the content of your timeline by not seeing content that might disturb you.
To hide words on Twitter, click on the More menu from the side column and go to the Privacy and Security menu. Then enter the Hide & Block menu, then in Hidden Words, press the + button.
Enter the word or phrase you no longer want to see, and choose where you want Twitter to hide it. Then select a Mask duration if you do not want them to be masked ad vitam æternam.
13. Limit the possibilities of replying to your tweets
If you’re used to posting high-response tweets, you can choose to limit the audience that can respond to your post if you wish.
To do this, when composing your tweet, click Anyone can reply, and change the option to allow only people you follow or only people you mention to reply to your tweet.
14. Use Bookmarks to save tweets
You’ve found a bunch of tweets interesting enough to want to keep them under your belt. If in the past it was enough to add tweets to your favorites (which have since become like), this solution is not really discreet since all network users can access them from your profile.
Instead prefer the use of bookmarks. To add a tweet to your bookmarks, click on the share button of the tweet and choose to Add Tweet to bookmarks. You can find all the tweets saved in this way from the Bookmarks menu in the Twitter side column.
15. Embed a tweet in a web page
If you happen to need to embed a tweet on a web page, Twitter offers a turnkey option. Go to the tweet you want to embed, click on the option button represented by three small dots and choose Embed tweet.
In the page that opens, click on set customization options to customize certain elements of the tweet to integrate and validate your customizations by clicking on Update.
Then click Copy Code to copy the code to put on your web page to embed the tweet. You should get on your page the exact preview displayed on the page from which you copied the tweet embed code.