Looking forward to the new year, we can’t help but feel excited about what it may hold. With 18% of US adults looking to buy some form of new wearable tech in the next 12 months, we’re not alone. Robot chefs in every home? Toast that lands butter side up? We’ve let our imagination run wild and thought of some of the things we’d love to see on Twitter over the coming years that would even excite Marty McFly!
A few of these ideas might be a little pie-in-the-sky, but there is science currently being developed that suggests they might not be that far from the realm of possibility. In the future, some of these innovations and changes may be as common as smartphones, WiFi, and Poptarts:
Four billion new followers.
Okay, we know how this sounds…
But why let that get in the way of your ambitions? Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has been travelling the globe with his Internet.org project that aims to provide Internet connections for the two thirds of the planet who are not online, which is about 4.5 billion people. He’s taking it so seriously that he is making Facebook's developers use old phones and poor networks to test his site with so that they can understand the challenges faced by areas with limited internet connection. Getting these people online won’t happen overnight, but if Zuckerberg succeeds then that’s a giant audience to reach.
Log-in just by looking at your phone
Apple already have fingerprint unlocking enabled with their Touch ID technology, but what if we’re just too busy to touch our phone more times than we have to? Luckily, Google have been submitting patents for technology that recognises users' bio data (veins, fingerprints, voices, eyes), which can then be used as identification instead of a password. What was once the technology of shady giant corporations in Hollywood movies is rapidly becoming something that we’ll carry around in our pockets without thinking twice about it. The security benefits are clear, as it’s a lot harder to make an exact copy of someone's retina than to simply guess ‘Password1234’ on a bunch of profiles. But we’re incredibly excited at the thought of just looking at our phone to log-in to our Twitter accounts.
Tweeting with our body
Sure, we can currently use our fingers to tap our screens and Tweet, but why stop there? Students at Olin College have created the Hashtag Gloves, which allow you to Tweet instantly just by tapping the gloves together in the hashtag symbol. You then speak whatever you want to Tweet. So you don’t have to awkwardly hold thoughts in your head while you struggle to get your phone out to type manually like some sort of medieval scribe, as soon as you think of something you can Tweet it using your voice and hands! This gives you time to get back to all of the exciting other activities in your life such as snowboarding, life-saving, and Instagramming. Bonus: the gloves will also keep your hands warm!
Embed entire films to a tweet from anywhere
Still getting used to streaming video on 4G? Well, in the early 2020s that could feel as old-fashioned as using a dial-up connection to speak to people via MSN about your favorite Aaron Carter songs. According to University of Surrey researchers, the 5G network will be able to download 800 films a second. That means in under a minute you could download all the films you’ll ever watch in your entire life. If you’re out and about, filming a long-form interview or other piece of content, instead of waiting until you get back to the office to upload it, you could Tweet it there and then with an ultra speedy 5G connection! The 15 minutes saved COULD be the difference between you having a story first and a viral Tweet of the decade, or missing the boat entirely.
Tweet from the desert using a balloon
Google’s ambitious Loon project is another effort to bring the internet to the billions of people who don’t have it. How are they doing this? By floating big balloons 20,000 metres up into the air, where they will beam internet connections down allowing people in remote areas to watch cat videos and Kardashian bums whenever they fancy. What a time to be alive! When this project rolls out globally, you could potentially be sitting in the desert and Tweet sunbathing selfies to the world. Sure, you could do something more beneficial with this technology, but you could rack up some serious RTs with a post like that!
Tweets powered by rats
In his masters thesis at the school of visual arts, designer Damon Ahola came up with numerous ways to harvest energy from things that are moving around us. There were ideas such as using our sneakers to create energy when jogging, or creating wind energy from air con units. But one idea that got our attention was the idea of giving rats little jackets that use the energy from the animal’s movement to provide free WiFi as they scurry around the Subway. If a way of doing this without bothering the rats could be figured out, then why not use that internet to send environmentally friendly Tweets from?
Twitter will tell us what rides have the shortest queues & who doesn’t get scared on the rides
You’ve spent a fortune on entry, why spend hours in a queue when you could be on rides? Many modern theme parks already have apps that tell you how long the queues for rides are, but there’s the possibility for them to take this a step further using beacon technology. Why not see where you are in the park, and send you a direct message with the shortest ride queues within a five minute walk? Taking it further, if you’re already using your smartphone combined with a wearable fitness device, then it would be great if the park could see what ride you’re on, tell you how your body reacted during the ride, and then tell you where you ranked against other people on the ride. You could Tweet the results to your friends to boast about how you totally weren’t scared because you sweated the least.
Drones to take pictures of your food so you don’t have to
You may have seen the TGI Friday’s mistletoe drone flying around, encouraging diners to kiss under the mistletoe while a whole restaurant gawps at them. For some people, that could be great. But what if you don’t want to pucker up and kiss someone right after you’ve filled your gills with mozzarella sticks and garlic bread? Let’s not waste those quadcopters that TGI’s have acquired, why not train it to take the perfect picture of your food so that you can concentrate on eating it? There will be no meals going cold while you search for the perfect angle and lighting situation. The drone will get it just right on first try, send it to your phone, so that you can Tweet it to the world at your leisure, with a full stomach.
So, that’s what the future (possibly) looks like. What technology would you like to see changing the way you Tweet in the future?
