Twitter has come up with a major update for its iOS based app today. New and improved features give the app a nicer feel with features like the all new design based on the Tweet Box, and the easier and more efficient friend locator using the phone contacts. However, the most discussed and noticeable feature that has been added to the app is the Quick Bar, which basically gives Twitter a way to advertise over the app and thus monetize it. This, however, hasn’t gone down to well with many of its users who feel annoyed by its presence.
The Quick Bar is a feature which is currently limited only to the iPhone versions of the app. It is a bar on top of the Tweet Stream screen and basically keeps cycling through topics which are becoming trendy while allowing the user to cycle through them as well. The catch, though, is that these topics also include the Promoted Trending Topics which are basically advertisements incorporated into the Twitter environment. Given that these ads aren’t as bad (loud) as the others that the users are exposed to on the internet or many other apps, but are still ads in some form or the other and as the users of this app haven’t been accustomed to seeing them in the Tweet Stream, they are getting very annoyed at their presence.
Many users have come out condemning this new bar at the top of the tweet screens and the reaction was evident in their tweets right after the update when people asked each other if there was a way to disable it. The fact that there isn’t is also a big turn down for users as the bar appears overlaid on top of other tweets, which drastically affects the visibility of the app.
