Twitter, a US-based microblogging platform, is rolling out its Alternative Text (ALT) badge and exposed image descriptions feature globally.
Users can now add additional descriptions to their images, which will give such images an ALT badge when uploaded. Clicking on these badges will open up these new descriptions.
Twitter announced the testing of the feature in March 2022. Furthermore, the company is also testing a new ‘Unmentioning’ feature which will give users the option to remove themselves from a conversation.
According to Twitter, image descriptions or “alt text” benefits people who are blind, have low vision, use assistive technology, live in low-bandwidth areas, or want more context. They can also help users get information about the image, in case they don’t have a fast internet connection.
With the latest announcement, Twitter has also provided a guide for users on ‘How to add image descriptions’. It should be noted that image descriptions have a character limit of up to 1,000 characters compared to the 280-word character limit of a tweet.
The ‘Unmentioning’ feature is currently only available to a limited number of users on the web version. A ‘Leave this conversation’ option will appear on the corner menu of a tweet, which will also include ‘mute’ and ’embed’ options.
Leaving a conversation will untag the username from the original tweet and all of its replies. It will also prevent other users from mentioning the user in the conversation. Finally, the user will not receive any notification from it, however, will still be able to view the tweets.
