Twitter issues a lot of Android betas — it’s up to version 101 on this 5.2 build — but the recent versions have added and removed a number of features that users will both appreciate and find vexing.
First, the good news: Twitter has recently added the ability to reply, retweet and favourite from the notification shade on devices running Android 4.1 and above. Tapping one of the actions initiates a confirmation notification, which can then be dismissed.
The bad news is that Twitter appears to be discouraging users from quote-retweeting. Before the startup added native retweets, which reproduces the original with your account information atop, quote-retweets simply involve putting “RT @name” in front of the original information. Many Twitter users accuse those who quote of trying to steal the thunder from the content creator; others see it as a way of adding valuable content to the original tweet. Either way, Twitter thinks native retweets are the future, and has moved the Quote Tweet action to the Share menu.
Figured out why I can't quote or manual RT — I'm using a beta version, which suggests Twitter is thinking about killing off those features
— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) March 11, 2014
Considering Twitter still allows iOS users to choose between native and quote-retweets in the iOS app, which doesn’t have a beta program equivalent, it’s likely a similar change is coming in a future version.
Finally — and this was added a while back, as well — Twitter has activated Immersive Mode for KitKat users when viewing photos in the app. Not a huge change, but certainly appreciated.
Any other changes you see in the Twitter for Android beta? Let us know.
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