The Gadgets

Finally, the long awaited “Retweet” feature comes to the web interface of twitter. It is not just a “Retweet” button, it is in fact a collection of features regarding the reposting of tweets.

Twitter is rolling out the feature to selected users and since I am one of them, I’m providing you with the screenshots and details here.

1) The “Retweet” Button

Right next to the “Reply” button, below each tweet, there’s a “Retweet” button. When you click on the button, it asks if you really want to retweet. The confirmation is necessary because that tweet is not pasted into the update box to tweet again. It is instead retweeted right away!

Retweet Button

I really like the concept of retweeting right away because it totally eliminates the chances of editing one’s tweet or tweeting something on someone else’s behalf!

2) The Enhanced 140 Characters Limit

The 140 character limit is not waived but you won’t need to waste your characters in typing “RT @XYZ”. I typed an exactly 140 characters long tweet and retweeted it. To my pleasure, the tweet got retweeted unlike the traditional retweets in which you have to trim down a long tweet before retweeting so that you may add “RT @XYZ” before the tweet and still not exceed the 140 characters limit.

3) “RT” Is Vanishing

Yea, no “RT” text is there before the retweeted tweets. There is a retweet symbol instead. Like you can see in the following snapshot.

Retweet Icon

4) “Retweets” Link in the Sidebar

Right below the “Favorites” link, you can now see the “Retweets” link. It displays all the tweets that have been retweeted anywhere in the tweetosphere. When you go to the retweets link, you’ll find three tabs there named “Retweets by others”, “Retweets by you” and “Your tweets, retweeted” displaying the respective things as obvious from the headings.

"Retweets"

5) Who Retweeted It

When you follow any of the above mentioned links, you’ll find the retweeted tweets and below each, there’s a list of people who retweeted that one.

Retweet Button

6) Choose If You Want to See the Retweets of Somebody or Not

Right next to the “Follow” button, you will be seeing the retweet icon to toggle the option that if you want to see the retweets of that person or not.

Retweet

Things I Miss

I am liking the retweet feature of twitter and have found no bugs so far. But there are some things which I miss.

1. One of them is that I would no more be able to comment on a tweet while retweeting.

2. When you retweet traditionally, you actually mention the user in your tweet and thus he get notified about the retweet you just made but in the official retweet, the user is not notified. Or at least I have not seen this thing yet.

Since its a beta testing yet, I hope twitter will be adding those features based on the feedback before the final public release.