Twitter inserting clever hashflag on ‘Bird Box’ tweets

By Matt Collins Article may include affiliate links

Tweets hashtaged with “#BirdBox,” the name of an original Netflix movie that’s taking the Internet by storm have a clever emoji-style image added to them.

• Using the hashtag “#BirdBox” on Twitter triggers what Twitter calls a “hashflag,” a small image that appears next to select hashtags.
• Twitter inserts these images automatically, unlike standard emojis that might be included in the tweet.
• Many of these hashflags are paid sponsorships, though it’s not immediately clear if that’s the case with the “Bird Box” case.
• Hashflags are also not necessarily “permanent” — meaning that Twitter can control set time periods when using the associated hashtag triggers the hashflag.
• Sponsors can chose to pay for hashflags for a set period of time.
• After the time period passes, the hashflag image can be removed, but the hashtag remains in place.
• Others, however, such as those for election day or other prominent events of note are inserted automatically by Twitter without a sponsor. These are subject to only display the image during certain time periods as well.
• The design of the hashflags can vary greatly to include anything from logos to icon-style imagery.
• For “Bird Box,” Twitter is inserting a blindfolded yellow face, a nod to a core plot point of the film.
• The design of the face, notably, closely matches the set of emojis that Twitter uses if a user types, for example, a smiley face emoji.