Twitter has decided to expand its reach by adding the ability to email tweets from its website, PC Magazine reports.
The company also provided a boost to its iPhone and Android apps, and enhanced its search results.
Many Twitter apps (including Twitter's own) already allow users to email a tweet to anyone not using the service, but this new option will be embedded directly into the Twitter.com website as a standard option. The feature will appear in a new "More" icon next to the current "Favorite" option (similar to the interface on the current Twitter mobile app), and will instantly open an email window.
When a user emails a tweet from a mobile device, the "From" address is typically the device's default email address (i.e. the user’s own email address). But with this new feature, based on the currently available details, it appears that the emails will be sent directly from Twitter. It is as yet unclear as to whether or not an option to add own email as the "Sender" will be available.
"You can email a Tweet to anyone, whether they use Twitter or not, right from your Twitter stream or from the details view of any Tweet," a Twitter engineer wrote in a blog post. "You can add your own comment, and we'll send an email with your comment and the Tweet together. Just like that."
Currently, Twitter boasts roughly 500 million users, an impressive number but still far behind Facebook's one billion users worldwide. This new email option could help Twitter significantly increase its user base.
On the mobile front, Twitter's update to its apps provides easier access to headlines and photos from shared articles, a "view all tweets" section that pulls in tweets that were shared by people in your network, and photo results in search.
