Twitter has updated its mobile apps, now offering new search functionality, changes to notifications, a new timeline in the #Discover feature and, for some select users, an overhauled messaging experience.

New Search Function

The update brings new ways to search Twitter, now making it easier to find exactly what you're searching for due to new filters. Users can now tailor their search and refine results to show everything, photos, videos, or only news, then select either "all" or "people you follow." Users can further refine search by location as well.

New #Discover timeline

Twitter now also boasts a new timeline in the #Discover feature, which now shows trending topics and associated tweets such as nearby events, TV shows, or others such. Selecting "Activity" will then take users to another timeline that puts their followers' activity front and center. In other words, it's now just like the Activity feed on Tweetdeck, Twitter's desktop client.

New Notifications

The new Twitter for iOS app now sports some changes in terms of notifications. Instead of seeing just a subtle blue dot beneath the "Me" or "@ Connect" icons, Twitter will now display a blue notification banner above the icons. Tapping the banner will show a preview of the notification, while ignoring it will make it disappear in a few seconds, leaving just the blue dot. Moreover, all new activity is now highlighted in blue on the notifications page, which makes it easier to check out the most recent news.

Experimental messaging

When it comes to messages, Twitter is still experimenting. It pulled the "direct message from anyone" feature and is now using small groups of users to experiment its new features before a wider rollout.

The new updates to Twitter's mobile apps make it look more and more like a texting service, adding notable changes to core features. Twitter now highlights messaging and trends, bringing a completely new look to Twitter's direct messages (DMs). Twitter now encourages users to connect with their phonebook contacts, which seems to bolster the rumor that it plans to build a standalone messaging service.

Twitter's DMs now resemble Apple's iMessages, with the date and timestamps featured just below the text bubble. Users can also choose to mark all messages as read when accessing their inbox. Moreover, when you start to compose a new message Twitter will also display "suggested users" now, making it easier to connect with followers. This feature, however, seems to be available only on the iOS app for now, and only for some users.

Meanwhile, find the new Twitter for iOS here and the new Twitter for Android at this link, as both apps received updates on Thursday, Nov. 21. For more details about the new search and discover functionality, check out Twitter's announcement earlier this week.