Jane Machum Wong uploaded a photograph of a little pop-up with the wording, Share Tweet instead? It also features two buttons, one of which allows you to copy a link to the Tweet and share it to your friends through email or IM. The other option, Send Tweet, effectively does the same thing by allowing you to select an app from which to share the link.
A Twitter spokeswoman confirmed that screenshot blocking is presently being tested in the company’s iOS app, but not the Android mobile app or the desktop software. Such constraints are imposed by instant messengers for view-once photographs, such as the one WhatsApp has been testing. It makes logical to safeguard sensitive data that a user does not want others to see.
It’s quite simple really, the social network wants to attract more users. Forcing its users to share a link with others is a good way to get more people to try the platform. It also encourages user interaction. It’s not uncommon to come across screenshots of tweets around the web, a lot of people capture snapshots and share them on WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Reddit, etc. The images are used to share news, memes, etc.
There are some obvious workarounds to circumvent this restriction. You may use a third-party Twitter app, or use the web-version of the website in your mobile browser, to take a screenshot of a tweet. If you have a computer, you might as well use the web version via your browser since it offers a better user-experience, and you also can protect your privacy by blocking ads and trackers, or even use scripts like GoodTwitter 2 for restoring the old UI.
The service has been experimenting with a program called Try Twitter, which lets you follow and view tweets without signing in to your account. This feature is only available in the mobile app. The desktop version is quite the opposite when it comes to browsing without signing in, it has a banner at the bottom of the screen asking you to log in to your account. It also displays a pop-up when you scroll down pages that doesn’t allow you from viewing tweets until you sign in, the annoyance can be bypassed by enabling AdGuard Annoyances from the Filter lists in uBlock Origin filters.
You can also block the scripts manually by adding the following rules to your filters. (source: uBlockOrigin Wiki)
twitter.com##div#layers div[data-testid=”sheetDialog”]:upward(div[role=”group”][tabindex=”0″])
twitter.com##html:style(overflow: auto !important;)
Note: Adding the first line will remove the login pop-up nag, but it also prevents you from scrolling the page, the second line fixes the scroll lock.
Twitter recently introduced an edit button, the feature is available for Twitter Blue subscribers in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
