Twitter’s New ‘Moments’ Feature Has Become My SportsCenter Replacement

Two weeks ago, I said on Twitter that the combination of Vine videos with the distribution of Twitter had the potential to become a modern-day replacement for ESPN’s SportsCenter highlight show. Several Twitter followers told me it seemed more likely that Twitter’s new Moments feature, more specifically, could fulfill that promise. I now think they’re right.

Moments, which launched in October, are strings of tweets that tell the story around a recent event, piece of news or sporting event. The ones I’ve observed are heavily comprised of photos and videos. Twitter organizes them into different categories, including a Sports one, which I’ve been checking out the most. Moments is very similar to Snapchat’s Live Stories feature, but I use Twitter a lot more, so I know Moments better.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been checking the Moments tab in the Twitter app each morning. If the Knicks played the night before, I immediately check for their highlights, even if I watched the game live. That’s mostly due to my very unhealthy obsession with their 20-year-old rookie sensation, Kristaps Porzingis. In my defense, how can you not love this guy?

Beyond that one use case, I still like what I see. I can quickly browse through the best video highlights from all of the previous night’s games in the National Hockey League, for example — a sport I only follow passively, but enjoy catching up on in quick shots like this. I’ve also enjoyed some of the more offbeat sports Moments, such as a recent one titled “When Steph Curry” that includes tweets with humorous photos of people reacting to the greatness of the Golden State Warriors star guard. And I can do all of this in a few taps, while on the go, in a short amount of time, since the packages are designed to be consumed in short bursts of attention.

There are still changes I’d like to see. The photos and videos skew heavily toward ones made by the sports leagues and teams. I admit they are much less dull than I expected, but I wouldn’t mind seeing some more content included from normal Twitter users who were at the game or watching it on TV. That kind of content is part of the beauty of Twitter, after all. Perhaps fear of copyright infringement has played a part.

I’d also like even more sports Moments. Right now, only three or four sports-related Moments are created on most days. If you’re a fan of a specific team, you might not find the highlights you are looking for yet.

All in all, though, I think Moments is already good for sports fans, with the potential to be great. I recognize that I’m a Twitter power user, so maybe I pay attention to Moments more than most people do. But I’ve already recommended the new feature to friends who long ago gave up on Twitter, because I think they’ll like it a lot. I think it could win some of them back. And we know Twitter could sure use that.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via