Twitter's New Update Brings Pop-Out Conversations

Twitter has pushed out an update that changes how users interact with tweets, and not everyone is happy about it. Click on a tweet now and rather than being taken to a page with the full conversations, users will now see the tweet and subsequent tweets in a pop-out window with their Twitter timeline behind it. Fancy? Yes. But many are already complaining about usability, saying the move is a step backwards.

Twitter unveiled the new feature through its Twitter Support account today. You can see an example below of how the new pop-out conversations look. There are some notable issues, though, that have upset users, not the least of which is the lack of cursor scrolling, making the directional keys useless.

In addition, you now have to be careful not to click outside of the pop-out window, otherwise it will close and you'll lose your place. As well, if a notification arrives while you're reading a conversation, you won't notice until you've exited out of the pop-up. While the issues won't bother casual users, those frequently on the site might find the change annoying.

Of course, not everyone is upset with the design change, and it only applies to desktop, so those who only access the service through mobile won't notice anything different. What do you think? Is this feature a keeper, or should Twitter go back to normal? Check out the timeline below for more Twitter news!