Twitter Offers Expanded Tweets, Partners with More Sites

Twitter has gotten more serious with their expanded tweets service – which allows for a more interactive experience inside the site – now that it has partnered with news websites like TIME and The Wall Street Journal. On Wednesday Twitter released an update announcing new partners for their Expanded Tweets feature, which will allow for the convenient previewing of more articles, video and similar content without Twitter users having to leave the site. This “new way to discover content from the web” was launched Wednesday. Twitter expects the new feature to be available to iPhone and Android phones very soon.

So what do these expanded tweets mean for avid Twitter users? Twitter’s Product Team Director Michael Sippey explained over at the Twitter blog that an expanded tweet is essentially an easier way to view updates from more websites – or share, reply to and retweet them – all without having to leave the user’s Twitter page. Many Twitter users are already familiar with these expanded tweets, as these have enabled them to play YouTube videos or view Instagram photos. More recently, however, Twitter has partnered with more news websites – The New York Times, TIME, Breaking News, The San Francisco Chronicle – expanding the service to offer an even better way to deliver in-depth and up-to-the-minute content to Twitter users.

Going deeper into a recent news or headline has never been this easy with Twitter. Expanding a tweet that links to an article published by TIME, for example, will take you to the headline’s preview and its introduction. You may read the article right there, and if it suits you, reply to the tweet, “favorite” it or retweet it. And if you feel like checking the Twitter account of the writer and want to “follow” them, you may do that too.

Photo viewing from sites such as TMZ and Buzzfeed is also feasible, says Director Michael Sippey. He adds: “You can even watch moments from your favorite television shows… and play video from partners like Lifetime and Dailymotion.”

Examples of Expanded Tweets :

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