Twitter poised to launch long-form Notes feature in ‘coming weeks’: report

Twitter is poised to launch a new long blogging feature called Twitter Notes in “the coming weeks,” according to a report of TechCrunch†

Leaks and reports of such a feature have been circulating for months. In May, app researcher Jane Manchun Wong shared screenshots of a feature called Twitter Notes or Twitter Articles, which allow users to write formatted blog posts complete with images, links, and embedded tweets. More screenshots of the same tool were shared in April by another app researcher, Nima Owji, who showed options for users to share posts with their followers, or create standalone links for posts to share elsewhere on the web.

According to TechCrunch, the feature is currently called Notes and will feature prominently in beta versions of the Twitter app. But while the feature is reportedly set to launch in the coming weeks, it could be delayed by further experimentation.

Adding long-form writing to Twitter could dramatically change the character of the platform, which has long been defined by short-form writing (tweets were only 140 characters long, before doubling to 280 characters in 2017). On the other hand, Twitter is probably already full of longer written screeds, shared in the form of threads of tweets or tweeted screenshots of others’ articles or users’ own writing (usually captured in the iOS Notes app).

By incorporating long-written writing into its platform, Twitter could potentially leverage more of the value of these posts. Publishing articles or notes directly to Twitter makes the text indexable for marketing and search purposes. It could also tie in with the company’s upcoming Newsletters feature. In 2021, Twitter bought newsletter company Revue to take on rivals like Substack and has since integrated Revue newsletters into Twitter profiles of users† However, the feature does not seem to have achieved greater popularity yet.