A few days ago, Twitter released a new update to the Twitter app for iOS. While the update (to version 3.3) brings many nice additions such as a re-designed post screen and improved feature in general, it brings a major annoyance: A trending topic bar.
Before asking me what is wrong with it, take a look at the image on the side. The problem with this addition is not that Twitter wants to push its trending topic feature, it is the way they are doing it. Personally, the trending topics is not a feature that I use all that much, nor am very interested in. To start with, it has not been available for the Twitter applications of my choice (iOS and Mac versions of the official Twitter app). Secondly, I am also not very interested in the feature, it doesn’t go well with how I use Twitter.
Why do I have so much problem with the bar?
It is not as much that I do not find the feature itself useful as the fact that it takes up valuable screen real-estate. On the iPhone, the screen as small as it is and with this bar added on, there is even less room left to see the true content, the tweets.
Listening to the majority of comments left at this update, I am not alone. Most people seem to be annoyed at the quick trending bar. What strikes me as odd and perhaps foolish, is that Twitter has decided to make the bar mandatory. You simply cannot remove it through a preference at this time. Whether you like it or not, it is going to be there!
Please Twitter, give us an option to turn this off if we do not want it. I think it is a clear sign of a flawed feature if people are not happy about the addition. Enabling the option to remove this bar would make the majority of users happy: The best of both worlds.
What do you think? Is the bar a good update or not?