Sometimes, you don’t really want to unfollow someone, you just don’t want to see their bullshit in your feed for a while. If you’ve ever found yourself in that situation, you’ll be happy to learn that it appears Twitter is testing a mute function in their official app.
Users of services like Tweetdeck have been able to mute people, hashtags, or certain phrases for a while now. It’s a popular feature. Now, it looks like Twitter is toying with the idea in their official app. Some Twitter users started seeing a mute option pop up next to their block or report options in their iOS apps a couple of days ago.
https://twitter.com/LostS0ull/status/460265965607854080
https://twitter.com/Oliviawag1/status/460497209155256320
Obviously, people are confused. If you mute a user, you won’t see tweets from them of receive notifications about them. Muted users also won’t know that they’ve been muted. It’s a more temporary (and less harsh) way to tune someone out without unfollowing or blocking them.
Not all users currently have this option, so it’s obviously still in testing mode. But I expect this one to stick around, as it’s a pretty useful feature that the official Twitter app has lacked for too long.
Image via Thinkstock, h/t TNW