Moments, the best of Twitter in an instant

When you open Twitter today you’ll see something new: Moments, the best of what’s happening on Twitter in an instant.

Every day, people share hundreds of millions of Tweets. Among them are things you can’t experience anywhere but on Twitter: conversations between world leaders and celebrities, citizens reporting events as they happen, cultural memes, live commentary on the night’s big game, and many more. We know finding these only-on-Twitter moments can be a challenge, especially if you haven’t followed certain accounts. But it doesn’t have to be.

Moments helps you find the best of Twitter as easily as tapping an icon – regardless of who you follow. Just visit the new tab called Moments, where you will discover stories unfolding on Twitter.

How it works

Tapping on the new lightning bolt tab on your phone opens a list of Moments that matter now. As new stories emerge throughout the day, we continue to update this list. Looking for more? You can also swipe through to topics including “Entertainment” and “Sports” to find more stories from the past few days.

Engaging with a Moment

• When you click into a Moment, you’re taken to an introduction with a title and description.

• Start swiping to dive right into the story, with immersive full-bleed images and auto playing videos, Vines, and GIFs.

• A single tap gives you a fuller view of the Tweet, which you can favorite, Retweet, and more. A double tap lets you instantly favorite the Tweet.

• The progress bar at the bottom indicates how much more each Moment has to offer.

• Swiping up or down dismisses the Moment and takes you back to the guide.

• At the end of a Moment, click the share button to Tweet your thoughts, and send it out to your followers.

  Following a Moment
  
  Moments are often updated as new information or great Tweets become available. You’ll know a story has been updated since your last view when you see a blue dot in the upper right-hand corner of the image associated with the Moment. For stories that update very frequently — like live sporting events or awards shows where it’s critical to know what’s happening minute by minute — you’ll see an option to follow the Moment, which blends the Tweets directly into your timeline. So you can keep track of the latest updates in real time without having to tap back and forth between tabs. When that story ends, so do the Tweets, leaving your timeline just as it was before.

  Read more about the Moments feature and how the desktop version works.

  Today, most moments are assembled by our curation team, and some are contributed by partners like Bleacher Report, Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Fox News, Getty Images, Mashable, MLB, NASA, New York Times, Vogue and the Washington Post. While we’re working with a small group of partners now, we plan to expand it in the future. The Twitter community continually surprises us with wonderful storytelling and creativity, so we look forward to seeing new and exciting uses of Moments from more partners soon. [Read our principles and guidelines for curating Moments.]

  To start, we’re introducing Moments to people in the US across Android, iPhone, and the desktop web. But as with Tweets, a Moment can be shared anywhere: if you discover a link to a Moment in a Tweet or DM, or embedded elsewhere, those of you outside the US can enjoy the same experience we’re rolling out today. And we’re hard at work to bring this same functionality to more places in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned for more updates!