Twitter working on About page for profiles, ‘Automated account’ status for bots

Alongside Twitter’s re-launch of its verification program to the public after a three-year shutdown, the company also announced that it was planning on introducing a new label for automated accounts popularly known as ‘bots’ on the platform.

If you’ve used Twitter actively, you’ve definitely come across some of these automated accounts on the platform. They can update you with the weather, or compile a series of tweets (in a thread) into a readable wall or text, or help you download a video via automated responses. The company has now stated its intention to identify these accounts on Twitter.

Also read: Twitter begins accepting public verification requests for the first time since 2017: How to apply if you're eligible

“Since our last update, we’ve been doing ongoing research on automated accounts and plan to introduce a way to denote this account type in the next few months, with memorialized accounts to follow,” the company said on its blog on Thursday, while announcing the launch of its verification program for the public.

Twitter also shared an image of an automated account that might be denoted as one, which also specifies the account that runs the bot. This could be the news organisation behind an automated breaking news updates bot, or a live score tweets account for a football club.

In addition to automated accounts, Twitter says it is also working on improving the Twitter profile – by adding an About page. Am image of the about page shared by the company looks like it could appear as a tab on the profile before the Tweets tab, and could let users display their personal pronouns, their location and birthday, a badge saying it is a ‘Confirmed’ account, along with other badges such as a ‘Translator’ badge.

Read more: Twitter removed image cropping on iOS, Android apps because it’s biased

However, there's no word on when these features will arrive on Twitter, or whether their features or design will change when they do. These features could certainly come in handy especially if they could also help identify bots on the platform, as well as allow users to better express themselves or identify users who haven’t confirmed their accounts – presumably with an email and a phone number.