14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter has announced that it will start rolling out new email notification features which enable users to keep track of retweets and favorite tweets. The features themselves aren't a huge deal, but they do offer useful functionality for some users. It's also a sign of how Twitter is continuing to build up its product, replacing the need for third-party apps and services.
"Starting today, we're rolling out an email notification that lets you know if someone you follow retweets or favorites one of your Tweets," Twitter announced in a tweet.
The feature is not available to all users yet. When it becomes available, users should notice the two new options alongside the existing ones, which enable users to get notifications about new direct messages and new followers.
The two new features should come in handy for those that want to know how popular their tweets are. In theory, the feature should drive up engagement as users noticing that their tweets are popular may come back to visit the site and see who has marked them as favorite or retweeted their updates.
The direct feedback may also mean that users will be encouraged to post more often, or focus on certain topics more.
However, users really needing these features have been turning to alternative services that cater to them. Even now, there are services, such as Favstar.fm, which offer greater control over the notifications.
Still, it means that sites focusing on filling this particular niche are out of luck. In case there are still developers that didn't get the message, Twitter is very happy to build its own tools and features and will do so even if it means ruining a third-party developer's app.
People may not agree with Twitter doing this, but it's the risk you undertake when building features on top of an existing platform and it's something developers should have been aware of when starting out.