Twitter's slow evolution into Facebook has picked up the pace. No longer are the social platform's 140 characters the norm. Visuals are swiftly taking the reins and leaving the retweet in the dust.
An announcement posted to Twitter's blog yesterday explained the new guard of photo sharing and tagging. Since its unveiling yesterday, app users will start seeing collaged images appearing on their feeds. Now, instead of uploading one TwitPic, Twitter will allow those users keen on Tweeting photos to upload four pictures to one Tweet. In addition to all that, users can tag up to 10 people à la Instagram and, more noticeably, Facebook.
The goal is, as the announcement reads, "to connect with your friends" in a way that's more dynamic than characters on a screen. Thankfully, tagging will not take away from the 140 character limit; thus, removing the now-familiar @handle structure (read: Facebook statuses). The update will soon hit Android and Twitter.com users. Don't be too surprised (or do) when you try to retweet something, though. Twitter is testing new terminology that's not so new for Facebook users: sharing (again, hello, Facebook).
Sigh. Soon we'll be saying, "Back when we Tweeted, retweeting was the norm." (Mashable)