With Twttr, the company says it wants to make conversations easier to read, understand and join. And to do that it's using features like color-coded chat bubbles to help you browse threads more efficiently. For instance, if someone you follow replies to one of your tweets, their response will be highlighted by a light-blue tag, making it easier to spot. This can be particularly helpful if you have a large number of followers or a tweet that goes viral and generates a lot of responses. It's intended to filter out the noise and keep you engaged with people you actually know, as opposed to strangers.
Alternatively, if someone you don't follow starts a conversation with you, their tweets will have a gray tag, similar to the Original Tweeter label Twitter has tried in the past. It's clear that Twitter wants to make the biggest changes to how you interact with others in your mentions, since the tweaks there go deeper than colored bubbles. In Twttr, there are thread indentations designed to help you keep track of replies that may branch off from the main conversation. Those are complemented by a "show more" button that hides responses that, according to Twitter, may be abusive or spammy.
So far, the experience isn't drastically different than the main Twitter app. But there are aspects of the beta that I'm starting to like, such as the colored chat bubbles that make it easier to keep up with a conversation. At the same time, though, it's worth noting that the Twttr app doesn't support all of Twitter's mobile features. That includes the revamped camera, which makes it hard for me to use the prototype app as my daily driver.
It's too early to tell whether these experimental features will manage to successfully filter bots, trolls or spammers completely out of your mentions. But I have noticed that the color-coded labels and indented tweets let me follow threads more easily. And they help me decide which replies I actually want to read and interact with. Meanwhile, the "show more" feature can filter out people who may be trolling, although I have come across tweets that aren't abusive or spammy in some of its hidden replies.
I think what bugs me the most about the "show more" feature is that if a thread within a thread becomes too long, it looks odd. Basically, the more you scroll to read the responses, the smaller the tweet boxes get, and that makes it extremely difficult and tedious to read tweets.
Gallery: Twttr hands-on | 8 Photos
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