Since last Saturday, X (formerly Twitter) has been abuzz with the viral “click here” trend that has everyone’s attention. While many people have jumped on the bandwagon of this popular trend, many others are still confused by this new feature.
Notably, major political parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP and Congress are also actively participating in this trend through their official X pages.
What exactly is the “click here” trend?
The new trend has seen thousands of users share images that feature a plain white background with a bold black statement saying “Click Here” printed across the background.
The text is accompanied by a diagonal downward arrow pointing to the “ALT” text or alternative text in the lower left corner of the image.
“ALT” text is a feature of X that helps users add descriptions to the photos they share on the platform.
Let’s look at a few examples:
—Bharatiya Janata Party (@BJP4India) March 30, 2024
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 28, 2024
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) March 30, 2024
Some users also admitted that they could not understand this trend. Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote: “What is the story of the picture click here? My timeline is full of it!”
Click here for image What is the story? My timeline is filled with it!
—Priyanka Chaturvedi ????????? (@priyankac19) March 30, 2024
What is this feature used for and why did Twitter create it?
The “Click Here” feature is designed to help visually impaired users better understand images with the help of text-to-speech recognition and Braille language.
The platform introduced “ALT” text back in 2016, when the social media company was still known as Twitter.
In 2016, Twitter announced the feature on its blog, saying: “Photos have always been at the center of some of the most important moments on Twitter. As a core part of the Twitter experience, they are accessible to everyone, including the visually impaired, on our platform Shared images, that’s really important.”
It added, “Starting today, people using our iOS and Android apps can add descriptions (also known as alt text) to images in Tweets. With this update, we’re helping everyone keep Twitter safe Content shared on is accessible to the widest possible audience.”
“Alt text should contain a textual description of the content of the image to help visually impaired people understand the content of the image. Therefore, using this text for anything else is an abuse of this feature and violates the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG ),” one user wrote, explaining the feature.
Apologize! I just deleted this tweet because I didn’t know this feature was designed for the visually impaired.
Alt text should contain a textual description of what the image contains to help visually impaired people understand what the image is… pic.twitter.com/I7DjYiqbnh— Mohammad Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 30, 2024
How to use this feature?
The blog post also explains that this feature can be enabled by using the “Write Image Description Option” within the app.
The statement continues: “Enable this feature by using the Write Image Description option in the Twitter app accessibility settings. The next time you add an image to a Tweet, each thumbnail in the editor will have an Add Description button. Click it to add a description to the image. Visually impaired people can access the description through assistive technology such as screen readers and braille displays. Descriptions can be up to 420 characters long.”
