Twitter Quietly Launches 'TV Timelines'

On Friday, Mashable reported that Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) is launching a “bold TV experiment."

"If it takes, it could change the face of second-screen viewing — at least as far as Twitter is concerned," the outlet wrote.

The March 12 update for the Twitter iPhone app includes a new feature: Whenever users share a TV show-related hashtag, name a popular character or “even a key phrase from one of a handful of designated shows,” a dialogue box pops up, inviting users to try out the new service.

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The new interface -- called TV Timelines -- features three columns: Highlights, Media and All. Users can either read comments related to a particular show, or get highlights and some key pictures, videos and vines.

“For now, our sources tell us there are no ads in the TV Timeline, though you would have to assume that will change if this graduates to a real Twitter feature,” Mashable reports.

“Twitter is not commenting publicly on the experiment," it added, "though it’s obvious that serving as a better second-screen partner is a strategic move."

For now, the experiment is just an attempt to get a piece of the conversation around TV shows, but it could prove to be useful, at least to avoid people from using a TV show hashtag to promote an unrelated tweet.