Twitter Wants You To Read Articles Before You Retweet

The feature is in testing on Android for now

Published June 10, 2020 05:27PM EDT

Even spending a couple of minutes checking out an article with a headline you want to share can help slow the spread of misinformation.

Twitter is testing a new feature designed to help slow you down before you retweet an article. If a user hasn’t opened an article on Twitter before they hit the Retweet button, the service may send them a notification to open it first.

Twitter says: “Sharing an article can spark conversation, so you may want to read it before you Tweet it,” wrote @TwitterSupport. “To help promote informed discussion, we're testing a new prompt on Android––when you Retweet an article that you haven't opened on Twitter, we may ask if you'd like to open it first.”

How to get it: The feature is only on Android for now, though it’s likely to come to iOS if it proves useful.

Bottom line: It seems somewhat obvious that you’d want to know more about an article than just its (possibly inflammatory) headline before you fire it off to all your Twitter followers, but let’s be honest: we’ve all done it. At least now we’ll get a little reminder to actually open it first.

Via: The Verge