Regain a Long-Missed Twitter Feature With Classic Retweet

Change is never easy, especially when it's one of your favorite services making the changes--and forcing them on you. But, if you're one of the many Twitter users still lamenting the loss of the old-style retweets in the new Twitter, you don't need to be sad any longer. Classic Retweet, a simple Firefox add-on and Google Chrome extension, can return you to the glory days of Twitter's retweet feature, allowing you to append your pithy comments to everything you retweet

Once you add Classic Retweet to your browser, you'll see it appear as a new option in Twitter's action menu, which appears below tweets when you mouse over them. In addition to Twitter's standard options--expand, reply, retweet, and favorite--you'll see an additional option: "Classic RT."

Using Classic Retweet is a lot like using Twitter's own Retweet feature: Clicking it brings up a pop-up where you can see the item you're about to retweet. But the similarity between the two ends there. Classic Retweet lets you edit the text you're about to retweet, adding your own thoughts on it. In fact, Classic Retweet actually forces you to make changes to the text: I found that it wouldn't let me post any retweets until I made some sort of change to the text, even if it was just deleting a space. Twitter's own retweet feature does not allow you to change the text at all, instead using it means you are simply forwarding the original tweet to your own followers.

Another key difference: When your Classic Retweets are posted, they are done in the style of Old Twitter. That means that your Classic Retweets include "RT @username" at the beginning of the tweet, which links back to the original composer of the tweet, alerting them to the fact that they've been retweeted. In the new style of retweets, the tweet simply posts on your own Timeline as is, with a tag underneath that says you retweeted it.

The best part about Classic Retweet is that it doesn't preclude you from using Twitter's own retweet feature: The two options exist, side by side. You can install Classic Retweet to your browser and use it whenever you see fit. Change has never been so easy.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

--Liane Cassavoy