Twitter's Moments are unique experience given, but has somehow failed to move up Twitter's active user base by much.
To get more people, Twitter needs to create something new, or revise previous strategies. On August 9th, 2016, it's saying that Moments would be accessible to more than just its in-house people.
"The stories and voices aren't always expressed through a single Tweet - they unfold across multiple Tweets and involve various points of view. Moments allow people to capture and experience richer stories reflecting the diversity of Tweets," said Gaby Peña, Product Manager at Twitter.
Previously, Moments have been created manually by Twitter's curators and a selected group of publishers. Now, it's opening up to have more people on board.
What this means, Twitter is expecting a broader group of creators to be on Moments, including influencers, partners, brands. This should affect Twitter's user base needle if its certain.
As a start, Twitter wants users to get used to the feature, and start promoting their self-created Moments. This include people who already use Twitter and those who didn't. Harnessing the creativity of more people should spawn more viral contents which will follow more engagement and users spending more time on the platform.
Some of the most memorable Moments created have been told in feeds of tweetstrom rather than predictable aggregation of news. This is another advantage that Twitter is tapping.
Turning Moments into an open platform, advertisements are still the key for revenue. Initially, Twitter won't be sharing revenue with new creators the way Tumblr that pays bloggers who host its ads. But the company is open to new ideas for revenue as long as there are future opportunities.
By opening up Moments, Product Manager Gaby Peña said the company wanted to give people "a new and dynamic way to tell their stories."
Moments is a year old. Formerly known as "Project Lightning", it failed to contribute much in Twitter's growth. On Twitter, user count only increased 3 percent year-over-year while its revenue has decreased from 60 percent to a third of that at 20 percent.
One of the reasons that the product is somehow unable to get the traction is because it exists on its own dedicated tab in the Twitter app. Because of its state, it's not that visible and feels buried to the more prominent Home, notification, messages and profiles.
Putting moments upfront, should make it more visible, and could make more users in using it.
As the platform desperately needs to boost user growth, leveraging Moments is its way to go. The move is seen to be a strategy to compete with Snapchat's and Instagram Stories. While the two are literally the same thing and carry contents in a narrative thread.
But Moments isn't something of a rush like Stories. Users are free to browse on tweets or videos, and scroll back whenever they want to.
At first, Moments could be difficult to understand and a bit clumsy. But it can shine because it makes Twitter a comprehensive and cohesive experience. Its wide coverage of current events and culture could put many Twitter's interesting bits forward.
For all this time, Twitter is seen to not squeezing that much potential out of moments as it could.
As for the firsts, Twitter has given the keys to influencer Deray McKesson, a Black Lives Matter organizer and activist. Other early adopters include Budweiser, which is using it to allow users to "explore every detail”"of its beer cans, and Allure magazine that uses Twitter to promote its content.