Twitter updates Explore and tests renaming Lists

Twitter has changed the location preference settings of Explore and testing renaming Lists to Channels.

Twitter Explore

Previously changing your location settings would only apply to Trends, but with the new update. Changing your location settings now applies to all of Twitter Explore, not just Trends.

This means the tabs in Explore such as News, Sports, For You, along with Trending and others will show location-specific content.

As a part of the update, 'Worldwide Trends' view has been removed but the platform says "We're working on improving Explore so we show you more relevant content for the different locations that you pick".

Tap the 'Settings' icon on Explore, to select a new location. Location preferences remain the same, you may select a city, state, or country. The change seems to have been brought in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: Twitter withdraws Q1 guidance due to COVID-19 impact

Twitter Lists

Twitter is testing renaming Lists to Channels. Lists is a curated group of accounts, either created or subscribed.

Twitter Lists is one of the features that has constantly been updated, either to make the feature better or to bridge the gap between what users want and what's being served.

In September 2019, Twitter was experimenting with the Home Feed and Twitter Lists by letting users swipe through customized Lists from the Home Feed. The platform improved shareability with the option to share a list with a card on Twitter, available for iOS and Android, in December 2019. Additionally, they also tested suggesting accounts based on Lists.

In January 2020, Twitter was testing Pinned Lists for Android. Users were able to pin a list to the main feed and directly swipe to it from Home.

There is not much information available on the new change and if the feature is being altered along with the name or how it might improve the feature. Although, previously renaming a feature has boosted its usage.