Science & Tech

Elon Musk rolls out most annoying feature ever and people hate it

Elon Musk rolls out most annoying feature ever and people hate it
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Elon Musk says he will resign as …
content.jwplatform.com

Elon Musk has launched a new divisive Twitter feature which some people are not particularly happy about.

Since the billionaire acquired the platform in October, he has rolled out several new additions and made some controversial moves, including banning many prominent journalists.

The Tesla and SpaceX owner has now implemented a "view count" on tweets to let others know how many times a post has been seen. This follows in the footsteps of the video model, where fellow tweeters are shown how many views a video has accumulated.

In a tweet on Thursday (22 December), Musk wrote: "Twitter is rolling out View Count, so you can see how many times a tweet has been seen! This is normal for video. Shows how much more alive Twitter is than it may seem, as over 90% of Twitter users read, but don’t tweet, reply or like, as those are public actions."

He later rectified his post with a follow-up: "Meant to say impressions."

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

The official Twitter Support account also updated users with the new feature, posting: "Replies and likes don’t tell the whole story. We’re making it easier to tell *just* how many people have seen your Tweets with the addition of view counts, shown right next to likes. Now on iOS and Android, web coming soon."

Users who cannot see the feature must update the app to the latest version.

Twitter

The new addition has undoubtedly divided people, with many praising the new View Count.

"Intrigued by the view count great Job, @elonmusk. Very nice to see what people are interested in… let’s see how his plays out," one fan wrote.

However, others have called the feature a "meaningless metric," with one unamused user tweeting: "As I was saying about desperate - 'shows how much more alive Twitter is than it may seem' ... I mean, I'm literally laughing. I think Twitter is as alive as it seems, given that it's not literally alive. but yeah if he create another meaningless metric."

Another wrote: "The really cool thing about View Count is when I scroll through tweets from yesterday, it’s immediately apparent that only like 5% of my followers are actively on this site/seeing my content. …Great job, Elon. Really makes Twitter feel SUPER 'alive.'"

A third concluded: "This is the stupidest feature ever man."


Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Conversation (0)