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Social media platform giant Twitter is testing a new feature called “Communities” that mimics Reddit’s subreddits, which allows users to talk about specific topics with others as part of an exclusive group.
Unlike the usual Twitter feature where users engaged in a discussion about a certain topic will broadcast their conversations to all their followers, Communities restricts tweets specifically to others in the community.
Communities is an invite-only tool, which means that moderators can invite the people who they think would fit the bill.
Only people in the community can reply to the community tweets, but the pages and timelines are publicly available, so anyone can read, quote tweet, or report content.
The new feature, which is currently in beta for iOS and web users, is similar to Facebook Groups, Discord servers and Reddit subreddits.
The microblogging site said that it wants to support public conversations and help users find communities that match their interests.
“We want to continue to support public conversation and help people find Communities that match their interests, while also creating a more intimate space for conversation,” wrote David Regan, staff product manager at Twitter, in a blog announcement.
The launch of Communities is part of Twitter’s strategy to roll out more features in an effort to expand its user baser to 315 million monetizable daily active users and grow annual revenue to $7.5 billion by the end of 2023.
Twitter’s communities have a high similarity with Reddit’s subreddits. Subreddit WallStreetBets, whose participants discuss stock and option trading, became a household name earlier this year after members were credited with helping to cause a short squeeze on GameStop and other “meme stocks”.
The squeeze caused by WallStreetBets caused losses to some U.S. hedge funds and short sellers in a few days in January before the activity was clamped down on by authorities.
Some moderators of the WallStreetBets subreddit were banned for breaking the platform’s rules but the platform continues to operate. At its peak, the subreddit had more than 10 million members.
Twitter has also been used to galvanize users towards certain causes, many of them political, using hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter in the U.S. and #BringBackOurGirls in Nigeria.
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