Twitter users on iOS can now see how many times a tweet has been bookmarked. Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter last year, the platform underwent several changes, many of which have been controversial. One of the biggest changes has been the revamped Twitter Blue service that offers the blue checkmark for $8 a month. The badge was earlier given for free to verified accounts belonging to public figures like journalists, celebrities, politicians, athletes, companies, and government agencies.
The bookmark counter on Twitter is visible on the tweet details page along with other metrics like Retweets, Quotes, and Likes. As explained by Twitter, the counter will display how many users have bookmarked a particular tweet, but unlike Retweets, Quotes, and Likes, clicking on the Bookmark counter will not reveal the identity of the accounts that added the tweet to their bookmarks list. The company says that bookmarks will remain private, and the feature will "never display which accounts have added a Tweet to their Bookmarks."
Bookmarks Counter On Twitter
In a support page related to the bookmarks feature, Twitter said that all tweets will display the bookmarks count, irrespective of who the author of the tweet is and who is viewing the metric. According to Twitter, "whether you’re the author or reader, anyone on Twitter can see Bookmark counts on Tweets." However, at launch, the feature is only available on iOS, although Twitter says that it plans to expand it in the near future. There's no specific word on when the bookmarks counter will be available on Android and the web, but going by Twitter's official statement, it could happen sometime later this year.
Before the rollout of the bookmarks feature in 2018, the only practical way for users to save a tweet was to like it using the 'Like' button. However, likes are public and are largely seen as an endorsement of the tweet itself. With the addition of the bookmarks feature, users no longer have to like a tweet for them to find it later. Instead, they can now bookmark any tweet for future reference.
Despite bookmarking being used differently than likes by most users, Twitter owner Elon Musk has claimed that bookmarks are "de facto silent likes," and suggested that both public likes and private bookmarks should be included in the total 'Like' count for tweets. For now, Twitter isn't including the bookmarks count in the total 'Likes' count, but it remains to be seen if Musk will implement that change in the future.
Source: Twitter 1, 2, Elon Musk/Twitter