Twitter has introduced a new feature that adds explanations to trending topics. For some trends, you’ll now see a pinned Tweet or description that adds context to the topic.
In a post on the Twitter Blog, Twitter acknowledged the fact that many users often don’t know why some trending topics are trending. Most users either get left in the dark, or are forced to scroll through endless amounts of Tweets to figure out what’s going on.
To fix the confusion surrounding trends, Twitter decided to unveil a feature that can help users better understand trending topics. This update offers an instant explanation that doesn’t require any digging.
Twitter will now pin Tweets to certain trends to provide insight into the origins of the trend. According to Twitter, the pinned Tweets are chosen by Twitter’s curation team, as well as the site’s algorithm. The combined effort helps decipher which Tweets are most relevant to the trend.
Twitter also ensures that potential spam will never get pinned. The company states that its algorithms “are designed to identify representative Tweets that aren’t potentially abusive, spam, or posted by accounts trying to take advantage of our system.”
In the near future, Twitter will add brief descriptions to trending topics as well. These descriptions will be written by Twitter’s curation team, and will also help add context to popular topics.
Keep in mind that you won’t see an explanation attached to every trend that crops up. Some trending topics don’t need explanations, and others aren’t far-reaching enough.
For now, you’ll only see pinned Tweets attached to trends on the Twitter app. And when the descriptions for trending topics launch, you’ll see that feature on the app, as well as on the desktop site.
Now that Twitter provides more context for trending topics, you won’t have to sort through a barrage of Tweets to find the source. Better yet, it also lets you avoid sifting through any toxic comments and responses that literally no one wants to see.