Twitter says goodbye to direct message bot

Micro-blogging website Twitter has retired "Magic Recs" -- an effective bot account that used to send users direct messages (DM) recommending viral accounts or Tweets to follow.

The bot used to run an algorithm to measure how many others a user knows that were following an account or Tweet in quick succession and used to send instant, personalised recommendations for users and content, a report on TechCrunch.com said.

However, Twitter said "Magic Recs" would send recommendations through push notifications.

"@MagicRecs is no longer regularly sending recommendations through Direct Message. Recommendations that were previously shared via Direct Message are now delivered via push notification," a Twitter spokesperson was quoted as saying.

"Magic Recs" was launched in 2013 and the push notifications -- alerts that are not tweets but appear in the notifications tab on mobile -- were first activated some months later.

This could be another blow to the company as at a time when bots are starting to become a thing, "Magic Recs" bot is being retired.

"Magic Recs" was a bot that worked when some have flopped. Magic Recs was accurate in predicting interesting accounts to follow and tweets to watch, the report said.

On Friday, the micro-blogging website was re-categorised under the "news" section of the App Store rather than "social networking".

The change was due to the fact that Twitter, which was famous for real time news feeds and events, was preferred less when it came to keeping in touch with friends.

The company reported a sharp fall in shares -- about 12 percent -- after the micro-blogging website, which managed to add 5 million people to take its monthly active user base to 310 million, missed the first quarter revenue estimates this week.

The company posted $595 million revenue in the first quarter ending March 31. It was up 36 percent from $435.9 million in the same quarter last year but missed the $607.9 million expected on average among analysts, Forbes reported.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that "we remain focused on improving our service to make it fast, simple and easy to use".

Twitter has predicted revenue for the second quarter between $590 million and $610 million -- much lower than the $678 million analysts expected.

Twitter's stock has fallen over 20 percent this year amid sluggish growth.

--IANS

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