It looks like Twitter’s leaked “Buy Now” button is more than just a proposal, after all. Recode has spotted the button lurking in tweets seen from the mobile app, enticing people into making impulse purchases when browsing their social feeds. While the shopping link was frequently broken, one tipster reports getting a checkout page in-app; apparently, it wouldn’t take long to buy whatever caught your attention. Neither Twitter nor its project collaborator, Fancy.com, are commenting on the inadvertent leak or their future plans. However, the appearance confirms that ‘Buy Now’ has at least made it far enough to become yet another Twitter experiment. The real question is whether or not it will survive beyond that stage — Twitter is known to shelve features in testing if they don’t pan out.
Two things stand out about the sneakers pictured above in a screenshot from Twitter. First, their list price is a cool $170 million (though we imagine that’s a glitch). Second, there’s a “Buy now” button included in the tweet. What’s that you say? You didn’t know you could buy stuff directly from a tweet? Neither did we. So what do we have here? The products being shared in these tweets come from a shopping app called Fancy. Back in January, Re/code uncovered a mock-up online that was created by Fancy and that a source said was used to pitch Twitter on what a Twitter e-commerce integration could look like. But Twitter didn’t launch any buying capability within tweets, until maybe now. When Re/code uncovered these “Buy now” buttons today, they only surfaced in Twitter’s mobile app and tapping on them didn’t do anything. But Re/code did speak to someone who said that tapping on the button earlier on Monday did lead to a checkout page opening up within the Twitter app. Re/code could not replicate that experience. So did Fancy accidentally make public another Twitter Commerce experiment? Is Twitter starting to facilitate in-tweet purchases? The companies aren’t saying. Twitter spokesman Jim Prosser declined to comment, and Fancy execs didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.