Twitter is burying Moments, the feature CEO Jack Dorsey once called a “bold new experience” that represents a “real shift in our thinking.”
Moments was unveiled with much fanfare in October 2015 as a way for Twitter to show curated collections of the best tweets and videos related to breaking news. Twitter has since suffered a string of departures from the team responsible for Moments, multiple company-wide layoffs, and a revolving door of senior executives.
On Thursday, Twitter unveiled a redesign of its mobile app that buries Moments at the bottom of a new “Explore” tab – a move that likely signals the feature’s days are numbered. A Twitter spokesperson said that no employees working on Moments were let go as a result of the redesign, but declined to provide any data about how much the feature is used.
The new Explore tab will incorporate live video, a search bar, trending news, and then Moments, which are created by Twitter’s staff of human editors and outside publishers like Business Insider.
The redesign illustrates Twitter's latest strategy of being a hub for live video, which has so far included partnerships with the NBA and business news network Cheddar, among others.
Twitter started testing this Explore tab with a small percentage of its user base around October, but now it's making the new design available to everyone starting Thursday.
"Over the past year, we've been exploring different ways to make it simpler for people to find and use trends, Moments, and search," Twitter product designer Angela Lam said in a statement. "During our research process, people told us that the new Explore tab helped them easily find news, what's trending, and what's popular right now."