Twitter Acquires Chat App Sphere to Enhance its Communities Push

Twitter is new Communities The offer doesn’t seem to have really caught on yet, but it continues revise the format and add more options that might eventually turn Twitter groups into something, and build another surface for more themed engagement in the app.

And that might help – today Twitter announced it acquired chat app Sphere to help expand his community project.

As you can see in these screens, Sphere is based on community chats and optimizes relevant engagement within each group to build bonds and maximize engagement.

The key features on this front are the “Zen Flow” system, which highlights the most important group chat elements for each member, and “Acknowledgments,” community stickers, and tools that allow people to identify top contributors.

As explained by Bullet:

“Our feed automatically deletes old or irrelevant chats to keep groups from feeling chaotic. Our chats generate important messages (like polls, events, and announcements) and make people more likely to respond. Our individual appreciations encourage people to express genuine gratitude.”

Which isn’t much different from what other groups have on offer, but Twitter could gain particular value in its discussion highlighting algorithms that work to bring the most relevant elements to each user, while its incentive tools can also help improve Twitter communities and make it a more compelling space.

Although it has a task ahead of it. While the idea of ​​Twitter communities makes sense as they provide a way to engage with specific topics in the app rather than broadcasting every single tweet, their practical value is limited as most users already have their own tweet communities Curated about her person on Follow in the app. Additionally, the prospect of actually reducing your Tweet reach and engagement by solely posting to one community is unlikely to be very appealing to users.

Looking at different tweet communities so far this is a common problem – tweets within communities that cannot be viewed by all of your followers, just members of that group, generally see much less engagement and the subsequent conversation is not straight flowing every single one.

This is anecdotal, of course, and Twitter would have the real glimpse into what is happening in its communities as a whole. But it looks like communities somewhat violate the platform’s “public space” character and may be an awkward fit.

But perhaps Sphere’s more advanced algorithms and tools can fix this, and if Twitter introduces some of Sphere’s engagement prompts and detections, it could potentially help make Twitter communities more lively and active, and that could give the impetus which is needed to become a more significant option.

It is the latest in Twitter’s broader efforts to expand its offerings and become a broader connectivity tool in a variety of ways to increase usage and maximize business potential. Twitter has too acquired newsletter platform Revue again in January and Web reader platform scroll in May, both of which are now being implemented in new on-platform offerings that are largely geared towards the paid subscription tools.

Sphere seems less likely to become a paid tool, but as Twitter tries to expand its focus on topic-based engagement and build communities in the app, it could provide some key engagement tools that could differentiate its group offering and make it a more compelling in App experience.

We will keep you informed of any progress.