Twitter is experimenting with a status update feature

Twitter might soon take a page from Instagram's defunct Threads app — not to mention other messaging apps you used in the past two decades. As The Verge reports, code sleuth Jane Manchun Wong has discovered that Twitter is developing a "Vibe" feature that would let you set status updates akin to Threads and the many, many IM clients at the turn of the century. You could set status at the profile level, but you could also attach them to specific tweets to indicate what you were doing at a specific moment.

Wong's examples only showed generic presets like eating, listening to music and shopping. It's not clear if you have the option of writing your own updates, or if third-party apps could hook into the feature (say, for music and videos).

The concept of a Twitter status update isn't completely new, either. The social network was testing another form of status update back in 2018, although it didn't work the same way and never reached everyday users.

We've asked Twitter for comment. There are no guarantees Vibe will reach the broader public or even enter testing. We wouldn't be surprised if it does, however. Twitter has long had messaging features that could benefit from status updates (such as letting others know you're busy), and it's increasingly relying on live features like Spaces audio sessions where you might want to share what you're doing.

Twitter is working on “Set a status” in Tweet Composer, codenamed “Vibe”

You can think of it as something similar to Instagram Threads app’s Status pic.twitter.com/TGXH4uVe8Z

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 22, 2022