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Twitter Is Testing Two New Useful Features
If you’re an observing Twitter user, there’s a chance that you’ve already noticed two new buttons. One of the two buttons is titled “Shop,” and it’s intended for tweets containing links to product pages on a shop’s website. The other button is titled “Undo,” and it lets you undo a recently sent tweet.
Shop Button
The Shop button was spotted by Qatar-based social media consultant Matt Navarra, who first noticed it on his Android device. Tweets with the Shop button can be seen as alternatives to ads because they both serve the same purpose. The biggest difference between them is that ads are not organic, and many Twitter users don’t see them at all because they use various ad-blockers.
The color of the Shop button matches Twitter’s established color scheme, but it’s likely that it will eventually be customizable. If the button takes off, then we could see other similar e-commerce buttons launch in the future, such as a subscription button.
Twitter has also recently announced that it’s aiming to become a creator platform, so that’s yet another use case for this new tweet format, with exclusive subscriber-only content being just one click away.
Undo Button
While arguably less exciting, the Undo button is something all Twitter users can appreciate. It appears for five to six seconds when a user hits send on a tweet, giving the user a chance to change their mind and make the tweet disappear before the whole world sees it.
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We expect the feature to result in fewer tweets with typos and embarrassing grammar errors, but we can also see it saving relationships and careers by making users rethink whether their tweet is really appropriate or not.
Unfortunately, there still hasn’t been any news about the prospect of an Edit button, which Twitter users have been requesting for years now. But because Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey previously said that Twitter would likely never implement it, it’s probably nowhere on the horizon.
News
UAE Prepares To Launch Two Satellites: Thuraya-2 And MBZ-SAT
HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum chaired the first meeting of the Supreme Space Council yesterday.
HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE, chaired the first meeting of the Supreme Space Council in Dubai on December 16, 2024. The session highlighted the UAE’s ambitious space plans and took stock of the sector’s economic progress.
The council emphasized the growing role of private companies in advancing space technologies, noting that their contributions are now equal to that of the public sector. Members also praised initiatives like the Space Economic Zones Programme, which are designed to fuel innovation and investment in the space industry.
خلال ترؤسنا الاجتماع الأول للمجلس الأعلى للفضاء، بحثنا الاستثمارات الوطنية والمشاريع المقبلة في قطاع الفضاء والذي يشهد تطوراً مستمراً… وجددنا التزامنا بدعم ومواصلة تنفيذ برامج طموحة لاستكشاف الفضاء الخارجي حيث وصل حجم الاستثمارات في هذا القطاع إلى 40 مليار درهم خلال السنوات… pic.twitter.com/etJ33OnuSu
— Hamdan bin Mohammed (@HamdanMohammed) December 16, 2024
Discussing the UAE’s space journey, HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum remarked, “The national space sector continues to grow and advance, and we take immense pride in the remarkable achievements we have accomplished over the years”.
Sheikh Hamdan also received updates on two upcoming satellite projects: Thuraya-2 and MBZ-SAT. Thuraya-2, developed by Space42, is slated for launch this December. Meanwhile, the MBZ-SAT, created by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), will soon follow. MBRSC, a major driver of the UAE National Space Programme, continues to lead the nation’s space-related developments.
Space42 took the opportunity to showcase its advancements, including ongoing collaborations between public and private entities. The company also outlined strategies to promote innovation, boost revenue streams, and create new opportunities for growth in the sector.
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The UAE’s current projects build on a growing legacy of space exploration. Back in 2020, the nation made headlines with its Mars mission, successfully sending a probe into the planet’s orbit in 2021. This mission, which is now in its second phase as of June 2024, has been collecting critical data to develop a comprehensive diurnal image of Mars.
The UAE also ventured into lunar exploration with an unmanned mission aimed at studying untouched regions of the Moon’s surface. While the probe ultimately crashed during its landing attempt after communication was lost seconds before touchdown, the effort represented a significant step in the country’s exploration ambitions.