As far as names go, Project Lightning is pretty awesome. Twitter is hoping users will agree and get on board with their latest big-ticket project.

Here and now

For the past year Facebook has been trying to be more like Twitter, with a focus on real-time trends and hashtags.

At the same time Twitter has been scrambling about trying to be more like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and pretty much every other platform.

Now Twitter is asserting itself in the area where it's strongest: real-time events. 

Flash in the pan?

According to BuzzFeed, Project Lightning will bring real-time events front and centre to the Twitter experience.

Twitter will soon feature curated streams of content around live events including instant-loading photos, clips and  live-streaming video (thanks to Twitter properties Vine and Periscope). 

Instead of simply appearing as links in the stream, each piece of content will fill the user's screen, and can be swiped to access new data.

All of which can be embedded and shared across the web and other apps.

The selected content will be curated around a mix of breaking news, entertainment and sporting events such as Eurovision and the World Cup.

While Project Lightning is still a few months off, it will be interesting to see if it boosts Twitter's stagnating user numbers.