• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, July 23, 2015

The big overhaul at Twitter continued this week, with a major update to its Answers service, which will allow app developers to track the performance of their apps more closely, TechCrunch reported. The news comes as Twitter prepares to host its annual Flight conference for developers.

The revamped Answers gives developers access to new data beyond simple measures of popularity like sign-ups and registrations, including for example direct monitoring of in-app purchase, which would in turn enable them to forecast their own financial performance with more confidence. Similarly, gaming app developers might track the progress of players through levels, allowing them to target ads more precisely or implement new monetization strategies based on player behaviors.

As part of the update, Twitter has also introduced custom dashboards where developers can monitor these new types of activity. By removing the need to make custom app tracking tools themselves, Twitter hopes the developers will have more time to focus on their main job of creating and enhancing apps -- which of course will benefit Twitter too, in terms of higher engagement.

As noted, Twitter has undertaken a sweeping makeover in recent months, amid growing investor skepticism about its long-term growth prospects and stagnant user engagement.

Earlier this week, it removed personalized wallpapers from users’ home pages, notifications, and timelines, although they remain in places where logged-in users will see them publicly, like tweet pages, list pages, and collections pages. That followed a preview of a new feature, “Project Lightning,” which aggregates content around events in curated spaces on the platform, among other new products.