HIGHLIGHTS
- Twitter created ALT badges to help visually challenged users.
- Twitter anticipates that picture captions will increase user engagement.
- Users will not mention you again if you leave a chat.
Twitter has announced the global availability of its ALT badge and exposed image description features. Users may now write extra captions for their photographs, which will result in an ALT badge being assigned to such images when they are submitted. These revised descriptions may be accessed by clicking on the badges. In March, Twitter's accessibility team revealed that these functionalities were being evaluated. In other developments, Twitter is now developing a new 'Unmentioning' tool that would allow users to remove themselves from a conversation.
On Thursday, Twitter announced the global rollout of the ALT badge and revealed image captions. Through a restricted rollout, the social media behemoth worked on problem fixes and garnered feedback. These features were created with the intention of supporting users who have visual impairments, use assistive technology, or do not have access to high-bandwidth Internet. It is also intended to increase user interaction by contextualizing uploaded photographs. In addition to the news, Twitter has issued a user guide on 'How to Add Image Descriptions.' It should be noted that picture descriptions have a character restriction of up to 1,000 characters, whereas tweets have a character limit of 280 words.
In addition, the business stated that it is testing a new 'Unmentioning' tool that would allow users to remove themselves from a conversation. 'Unmentioning' is presently only available on the online version to a small number of users. A 'Leave this conversation' option will show in the tweet's corner menu, along with'mute' and 'embed' alternatives. When you leave a discussion, your username will be removed from the initial tweet and any subsequent responses. It will also prevent other users from bringing up your name throughout the chat. Finally, you will not receive any notifications, but you will be able to watch the tweets.
