The social network that, along with Facebook, changed the world of communications. Twitter enables anyone to publish comments about anything to all interesed parties. Founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Noah Glass and Evan Williams, Twitter, now "X," lets anyone sign up and send alphanumeric text messages called "tweets" or "posts," up to 280 characters in length, to a list of followers. Although several social media platforms preceded Twitter, the simplicity of posting a tweet turned Twitter into one of the most popular applications on the Internet. Nearly a half billion people use the service.
Text First, Then Images and Videos
In 2013, inline images were included and audio conferencing was later added (see
Twitter Spaces). Videos were initially only supported as links from a tweet but eventually allowed directly on the platform.
From Mobile Blogging to Microblogging
Twitter expanded "mobile blogging," the process of updating a blog from a cellphone, into updating a short activities blog (the "microblog") and immediately sending the update to followers. For more vocabulary, see
Twitterese. See
verified Twitter account,
Vine and
microblog.
Twitter Became X in 2023
Elon Musk acquired Twitter in March 2023 and rebranded it "X." Because there are numerous Twitter terms that have "tw" and "twit" prefixes, how, when or if any of these terms migrates to an X version remains to be seen. Will "Twitterese" become "Xerese?" Unlikely. People still refer to Twitter and tweets, although they technically do not exist any more. See
X/Twitter,
X.com and
Twitterese.
From 140 to 280 Characters
Derived from the 160-character text message, the original tweet was limited to 140 characters for text and 20 for the user's address. In 2017, the message length was doubled to 280 characters. See
SMS.
Free and Paid - Twitter and Twitter Blue
For 15 years, Twitter was a free service; however, in 2021, a paid option was introduced (see
Twitter Blue). When Twitter became X, the paid offerings changed (see
X/Twitter).
From Personal to Commercial and Political
Twitter was designed as a social network to keep friends and colleagues informed. However, it became widely used for commercial and political purposes to keep customers, voters and fans up-to-date as well as to encourage feedback.
After establishing a Twitter account, individuals can import their email addresses as well as use the Twitter search to locate and invite people. Tweets can be made public and sent to anyone requesting the feed, or they can be sent only to pre-approved followers. To follow a feed on the website, the feed name follows the URL; for example, x.com/microsoft.
Forward that Tweet/Post (Retweet/Repost)
Twitter becomes a viral conduit when users receive an interesting message and forward it to their followers. The ease of retweeting/reposting can quickly build large audiences. See
retweet.
Replies and Direct Messages (DMs)
Initially a one-way broadcast from writer to follower, Twitter added a reply function that turned into a discussion group.
Tweets/posts can also be private. Writers can also send followers a private "direct message" (DM). Followers can do likewise, and they can also delete their DMs from the writer's inbox. In 2015, the length of a DM was increased from 140 to 10,000 characters.
@ Signs
When someone replies to a posting, they use their account name preceded by an @ sign; for example, "@JohnDoe."
# Hashtags
A hashtag is a number sign (#) prefix used to identify a topic for public lookup. Hashtags are used for organizations, sports teams and political parties; however, they can be created for anything. For example, people commenting about a Twitter event in New York added the hashtag
#nyctweetup to their posts, and all those posts could be viewed as a group by searching for #nyctweetup.