This is both interesting and maybe a little concerning.
This week, Twitter has announced that users can now both retweet and retweet with comment on the same tweet, which up till now has been limited to either one or the other option.
Can’t decide between a Retweet and a Retweet with comment? Now you don’t have to. Do both!
— Twitter (@Twitter) July 23, 2019
The option will provide more capacity to add your own context to every tweet, while also sharing the original message.
Reports have suggested that some users have been frustrated by Twitter's quote tweet process, in which the original tweeter isn't notified that their tweet has been re-shared by a user who's added his or her own comment. By enabling both options, users may be able to ensure that the original tweeter is alerted (by the retweet) while also adding their own opinion via the tweet with comment option. Which, I guess, doesn't really address the functional gap, but it may provide more capacity to build connection with the tweet originator.
But here's the concern - the capacity to double share tweets may also be abused by people who are seeking to get maximum amplification for their own messages.
No doubt you've already seen users liking and retweeting their own tweets. This will now provide users with yet another way to ramp up their own engagement, by liking, re-tweeting AND quote tweeting themselves. That could lead to a lot of message duplication - and of course, you can just unfollow people who do this repeatedly. But you can bet a heap of social media marketing folk will be keen to test whether retweeting and retweeting with comment on every message helps to boost tweet amplification, and gives them an extra push in expanding their message.
That could get annoying - but again, you can just unfollow those that do so if it becomes a problem.
And now, you can help boost messages you're interested in a little more - you can re-tweet the original message to help maximize reach, then add your own comment on the next re-tweet, providing your own context as to why you support the same.
It seems like it will be a fairly minor addition, but the capacity for overuse is something to monitor.