Twitter launches Moment shortcut to key tweets and memes

Missing out on those must-see memes? Twitter is launching a shortcut today that will change the way you discover key tweets.

EMBARGOED UNTIL 11pm Qld Time 6 October 1015: screen shots showing new Twitter feature Moments - designed to help Twitter users quickly get up to speed on conversations between world leaders and celebrities, citizens reporting events as they happen, cultural memes, live commentary on the night’s big game, and many more.

TWITTER today is launching an easy way to catch up on the memes you missed.

Called Moments, the feature is a shortcut through to a packaged group of tweets, be they an exchange between world leaders, highly shared celebrity tweets or the best tweets about the big football game everyone is tweeting about.

Twitter product manager Madhu Muthukumar has announced the feature in a new blog post.

To launch Moments, click on the lighting bolt icon that will be part of the Android and iOS apps and the Twitter website.

You then see a heading for the Moment. In the example in the picture above, the Moment called A Year in Space takes you through to a collection of tweets from NASA and astronauts on the International Space Station.

Moments will also be grouped under headings such as Sports and Entertainment.

The bad news for Australian tweeters is that the feature will be rolled out in America first and will come to local users later.

But while you won’t be able to discover Moments for yourself, you will see them popping up in your timeline from today.

The key points you need to know about Moments on Twitter are:

* Click on the lightning bolt icon and you first see a title and description.

* Swipe right to go through a connected chain of images, tweets, videos and Vines.

* You can favourite or retweet any tweet within a Moment as you swipe through.

* Swiping up or down dismisses the Moment.

* Get to the end of the Moment and you can share the full Moment.

* Australians will have to wait a while until the feature is fully rolled out locally, but will be able to click on Moments in their timeline and share them from there.