Twitter Is Testing Verified Phone Number, Tweet View Count Labels

pcmag.com:

Twitter is testing a couple of new labels that confirm an account is linked to a phone number and help show just how popular a tweet really is.

As The Verge reports(Opens in a new window), the new labels were discovered by well-known frontend engineer Jane Manchun Wong, who has a long history of uncovering new Twitter features. The first new label(Opens in a new window) adds a small shield icon and the words "Verified phone number" to a Twitter profile. Requiring a phone number be verified is already part of the "blue check" process, but this looks to be a way of offering the option more widely.

The second new label(Opens in a new window) adds an eye icon and a tweet view count to each tweet. By doing so, it shows others users how many people have read the tweet rather than relying just on Like and retweet counts to tell how popular a tweet turned out to be.

For the verified phone number label, it's worth noting that Twitter allows all accounts to add a phone number for enhanced security, and that one number can be associated with up to 10 accounts. However, with the recent zero-day exploit allowing access to Twitter user data, many users may be weary of sharing their number with the service now.

The tweet view count label is certainly a "nice to have" feature, but I suspect both new labels may end up being rolled out exclusively as options for Twitter Blue subscribers if they make it through the testing phase. With the price of Twitter Blue increasing to $4.99 per month recently, it needs all the new features it can get.

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