What’s better than one person typing up pretentious hot takes on current events? Two people! Twitter is rolling out a new feature that will allow two users to co-author a tweet together, posting the tweet on both of their accounts simultaneously.
The CoTweets feature is already available to some users on the social media platform as Twitter experiments with ways people could use this new tool. “We’re continuing to explore new ways for people to collaborate on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email. “We’re testing CoTweets for a limited time to learn how people and brands may use this feature to grow and reach new audiences, and strengthen their collaborations with other accounts.”
Here’s how CoTweets will work. The option now appears next to the ‘Tweet’ button that lets users compose a tweet, except this one says, ‘CoTweet.’ Twitter recommends using direct messaging to finalise the content that the two authors want to tweet out, and once they have agreed on it, one author creates the CoTweet and invites the co-author. After the co-author accepts the invitation, the CoTweet will be published on both of their profiles, and their followers’ timelines. CoTweet invites can only be sent to users that follow you, and have public accounts.
Once it’s on your timeline, a CoTweet will have both authors’ pictures and usernames in the header. Twitter notes that they are still experimenting with this new feature, and “at the end of this experiment, we may turn off this feature and any CoTweets that were created may be removed,” the company wrote on their help centre.
Instagram has also rolled out a similar feature on its platform, allowing users to collaborate on a single post or reel. For Twitter, this could be a useful way to release a shared statement, a fun way to collaborate among different brands or users, or could end up as a total disaster. It’s too early to tell.