In the mire of toxic verbal abuse and cross-purposes communication that makes up much of our online interaction with the world, Twitter is upping its game - or trying to.
Twitter has created a redesigned layout and look of its conversation features, meaning that replies and comments on Twitter threads would have a whole new feel.
Twitter has been testing out the features internally for a few months, and has now opened up applications for users to test the new platform before (hypothetically) launching in a few months time, encouraging feedback on the changes.
Anyone using Twitter on iOS can head to the survey link, where they'll be asked a number of short questions on their preferred platform, language, and country of residence. Invitations to the beta test will then be sent out over the coming weeks.
Open your eyes and see
So what can a simple redesign do to tackle the problem of how we communicate online? For one, the new design hides away Like and Retweet numbers until you click for them, in an attempt to focus more on what's being said, rather than just how far it's reached.
Visually the new design is also more casual, with rounded speech boxes of the kind in your text messages, and a simple blue/gray color-coding to identify followers and the original poster of the message.
Replies are also indented to make it clearer what message is responding to what - much like Reddit - for more visual clarity.
The public launch of the redesign is still "months away" according to the company: whether it will help bring conversation back to the fore, and help mitigate trolling and abuse, remains to be seen.
Via The Verge
