Twitter has launched a new feature, which lets users control who can reply to them.
The company began testing the initiative in May and on Tuesday (11.08.20) launched the settings, which will allow users to choose whether to allow everyone to reply to tweets, only people they follow or only people they mention.
Suzanne Xie, Director of Product Management at Twitter, said in a blog post: "Since your Tweet = your space, we've been testing new settings to give people more control over the conversations they start. Sometimes people are more comfortable talking about what's happening when they can choose who can reply. We've seen people use these settings to have conversations that weren't really possible before. Starting today, everyone will be able to use these settings so unwanted replies don't get in the way of meaningful conversations.
"Here's how it works. Before you Tweet, choose who can reply with three options: 1) everyone (standard Twitter, and the default setting), 2) only people you follow, or 3) only people you mention. Tweets with the latter two settings will be labeled and the reply icon will be grayed out for people who can't reply. People who can't reply will still be able to view, Retweet, Retweet with Comment, share, and like these Tweets.
"Twitter serves the public conversation, so it's important for people to be able to see different perspectives. We'll keep working on making it easier for people to find the entire discussion through Retweets with Comments. Also, we're trying out a new label to make it more obvious when these conversation settings are used."
