Read before you retweet. It’s simple as that but most just wouldn’t do it. Twitter says it’s working on bringing the “read the article before you retweet it” prompt to all users soon. The feature was first tested in June.

“Sharing an article can spark conversation, so you may want to read it before you tweet it. To help promote informed discussion, we’re testing a new prompt on Android — when you retweet an article that you haven’t opened on Twitter, we may ask if you’d like to open it first,” announced the company’s official Twitter Support handle.

The idea is headlines can be misleading or doesn’t tell the entire story. Instead of mindlessly circulating an article that doesn’t reflect its content, read it. It may lead to fewer baseless comments.

Twitter has shared some results from its initial test of the feature (which was done on Android users). According to the company, people shown the prompt opened articles 40 per cent more often and that the overall proportion of people opening articles before retweeting increased by 33 per cent. It seems that some people “didn’t end up RTing after opening the article”.

Another feature that has been rolled out involves offensive replies. Twitter warns users before sending offensive replies: “When things get heated, you may say things you don’t mean.” The company has better hate speech policies than most social media networks. Users can also limit who replies to tweets.

There is another development at the Jack Dorsey-led company. The microblogging and social networking service is experimenting with the idea of letting people record and send voice messages through direct messages, according to The Verge. Alex Ackerman-Greenberg, product manager for direct messages at Twitter, has said that the company will be testing voice DMs soon. Brazil will be the first country included in that test. Voice messages are not complicated and the interface involves only a pause/play button. There’s a “report message” option if someone misuses voice DMs.