On Twitter, a like is a like — unless it's not.
Over the years the "like" button has come to embody several distinct uses on the social media platform: a way to designate appreciation for a tweet, show agreement, or, confusingly, to essentially bookmark the tweet in question for later reading. Thankfully, with Twitter's unveiling of an official new bookmark feature today, that ambiguity will go the way of the star (although, to be fair, we miss the star).
That's right, no more "liking" a super weird tweet with a linked article — intending to revisit it later in the day when you have a free moment — only to have that same bizarre thing live forever in your "likes" tab.
And the process sounds super straightforward.
"To bookmark a Tweet, tap the share icon under the Tweet and select, 'Add Tweet to Bookmarks,'" explains a Twitter press release. "To find it later, tap 'Bookmarks' from your profile icon menu. You can remove Tweets from your Bookmarks at any time."
Pretty neat, right? And here's the important kicker: "Also, only you can see what you’ve bookmarked."
The press release says this feature is available today, and is "now rolling out globally on Twitter for iOS and Android, Twitter Lite, and mobile.twitter.com."
Notably, this update didn't come out of the blue. Twitter first alerted us to the possibility of bookmarks last October, and it seems the company has finally made good on that promise.
So many ?’s are shared in tweets each day — articles, podcasts, videos — but I often don’t have time to get thru them when I find them...while in line, in the elevator, etc. Been so great having Bookmarks in our internal app the past few months. Stoked to be launching it today! https://t.co/6WywFeUj0Y
— Keith Coleman ??? (@kcoleman) February 28, 2018
Granted, there's nothing life-changing about this update. However, it does clearly benefit the user in an immediate and real way. And hey, we're totally here for that.
So get to bookmarking, and, while you're at it, clean up that embarrassing "likes" column. Because after today, you no longer really have an excuse.