Twitter preps ‘Search Subscribe’ notifications for new tweets matching a search term

In the latest pre-release version of the mobile app, Twitter is preparing a way to get notifications about new tweets that match a particular search term.

When it comes to tweet-related mobile notifications, the best app for the job has always been the official Twitter app, albeit limited to only new tweets from accounts you follow. Meanwhile, on desktop, TweetDeck offers an expanded suite of notification possibilities combined with the speed of still being an official Twitter application.

As shared on Twitter by Android developer and 9to5Google contributor Dylan Roussel, the latest version of Twitter Alpha includes the beginnings of a feature called “Search Subscribe” that borrows heavily from TweetDeck. While Search Subscribe is not yet live in the app today, Roussel managed to forcibly enable the feature, offering a preview of how it’ll work.

When performing a search in the Twitter app, you’ll see a bell icon next to the search bar. Upon tapping it, you’ll be informed that “you’re subscribed to receive push notifications for Tweets about” what you searched for. From the two preview screenshots shown, this seems quite a bit like TweetDeck’s ability to enable notifications for any given column.

Roussel was unable to show the notifications that Twitter’s Search Subscribe would create, likely due to the feature still being a work in progress. It’s not clear at this time whether the notifications will be sent in real time or if alerts will be more periodic and bundled in nature. The former could get potentially noisy depending on your search term, while the latter would not be as useful for monitoring ongoing events.

Given the recent trend of exciting new Twitter features initially launching as premium exclusives, it seems likely that Search Subscribe would become a new piece of the paid Twitter Blue subscription. That said, it’s too early to know for sure.

More on Twitter:

• Twitter for Android working on videos and pictures in the same tweet, ‘awards,’ more [Gallery]
• Twitter adds private Circles, taking a page from Google+
• This is probably what Twitter’s long-awaited edit button will look like on Android