Twitter Real-Time User Streams are Coming
Twitter recently announced a new feature and API for desktop applications that will change the frequency of updates from people you follow. It's called users streams and Tweetdeck and Echofon will be the first desktop apps to give it a go.
In fact, if you want to sign up for Tweetdeck's beta version of the application, do it now. Only the first 5,000 users will get into the club.
The new API is focused around pushing out data to desktop applications in real time, which will eliminate rate-limits for data on desktops. This means that all Tweets and even retweets, direct messages, mentions, favorites, following and search will be streamed directly to the desktop.
With Tweetdeck and Echfon being the first to test drive the feature, the experience will be limited to a few thousands users at first. However, Twitter official said that more desktop applications will follow with their own testing period very soon.
Twitter also announced a new Streaming API product called Site Streams, which will give developers the ability to consume and serve multiple user streams simultaneously, according to Mashable. No more details are available on Site Streams, but expect an announcement in the near future, according to various reports.
Do you think user streams will improve the Twitter experience?
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