Jetpack 8.7 Adds New Tweetstorm Unroll Feature, Improves Search Customization

Jetpack 8.7 was released this week with an exciting new feature that allows users to “unroll” a tweetstorm and publish it in a post. The feature works inside the Tweet block. After a user embeds a tweet, it will automatically detect a tweetstorm and display a prompt to fetch the rest of the tweets. It functions in a similar way to the Thread Reader app, except the unrolled thread is hosted on your WordPress post.

Tweetstorms remain a controversial way to get a lengthy point across. Twitter users with large followings will often get wider exposure and more traction and interaction on their ideas when they share them in a series of bite-size tweets. Although tweetstorms might be better as a blog, especially for those who are consuming and sharing them, a link to a blog post doesn’t carry the same weight as tweets for capturing Twitter users’ immediate attention.

If your thread is more than 3 tweets it does not belong on Twitter. Don't @ me. #longlivetheblog
— Jon Desrosiers (@desrosj) March 24, 2020

You may not be able to convince people to stop posting tweetstorms, but with Jetpack 8.7 you can make sure that these tweets are available inside a blog post.

Gary Pendergast, who has been working on the unroll feature for several months, tweeted a demo video of how it works.

Not particularly controversial opinion: most tweetstorms should be blog posts.

Putting my money where my mouth is: pic.twitter.com/HFBbmQtwql
— Gary (@GaryPendergast) May 29, 2020

If you’re looking to compose and publish tweetstorms from a blog post, with your post as the point of origin, John James Jacoby’s Publishiza plugin performs the opposite function of Jetpack’s new unroll feature. Pendergast said he is also investigating how to add the ability to publish a tweetstorm using the block editor, which seems like an ideal use case for writing content in blocks.

Jetpack 8.7 also brings updates to the recently revamped Search feature, adding more customization options for the search overlay:

Choose between minimal and expanded results

Change the default sorting to options — like chronological

Hide the sort option to reduce the size of the interface

This release also gives users easier access to their Google Photos and the free Pexels library. Access to these services was previously integrated with media library but is now also accessible via the block editor.

Version 8.7 introduces a WhatsApp Button block to allow visitors and customers to get in touch easily. The Jetpack team has also added more customization options to the Calendly, Mailchimp, Eventbrite, and Payment blocks. Check out the release post for a full list of improvements in this update.