What you need to know
- Twitter has been spotted working on adding tweet text selection support for Android users.
- This feature has long been available in the iOS app.
- Pixel phone owners have long had a workaround for this shortcoming, thanks to the overview text selection feature.
Twitter users on Android may no longer have to envy iPhone owners soon, as the social media platform appears to be working on adding support for tweet text selection.
With the exception of a few devices, such as the Google Pixel line, most owners of the best Android phones are currently unable to select text within a tweet. Some Android users can simply long-press on a tweet to copy the entire text to the clipboard.
On the other hand, iOS users have long had the ability to select parts of a tweet. Soon, the feature could make its way to Twitter's app for Android, as spotted by Jane Manchun Wong.
Twitter for Android is finally working on the ability to select text on Tweet pic.twitter.com/xoqYwc7aeLApril 2, 2022
It's unclear when the new option will be available, but given Wong's track record for discovering unreleased features, it's very likely that it will be released soon.
While text selection has long been absent from Android, Pixel phone owners have a workaround thanks to Android's overview text selection feature. However, as Mishaal Rahman pointed out, it is not accessible to everyone.
Overview text/image selection isn't available on all Android devices. Apart from Google Pixels I don't know if any other devices have it. (Google's is proprietary but other OEMs may have made their own.)April 2, 2022
Twitter has spent a significant amount of time over the past few months adding new features that improve the user experience on the platform, such as the ability to find specific content in your DMs and a way to react to tweets. It's also experimenting with a bottom composer bar.
It's surprising that Twitter waited so long to consider adding tweet text selection to its Android app, but it's a welcome addition to the feature set regardless, assuming it will be rolled out in the future.
