Twitter ‘Unmention’ Feature Now Available to All Users
Twitter announced the launch of its “Unmentioning” feature to all users on all devices. The new feature, which Twitter initially began testing in April, allows users to remove themselves from conversations they don’t want to be a part of.
The media giant announced the new feature in a tweet, “Sometimes you want to see yourself out. So take control of your mentions and leave a conversation with ‘Unmentioning,’ now rolling out to everyone on all devices.”
To ‘Unmention’ oneself from a mentioned tweet, select the three-dot menu next to the tweet to bring up a prompt offering to “get you out of this conversation.” The pop-up explains that leaving the conversation will untag you in the replies, but your username will remain visible. When you ‘Unmentioned’ yourself in a tweet, your Twitter handle turns grey, indicating to others that you’ve opted out of the conversation and cannot be tagged back into it. When you ‘Unmention’ yourself in a tweet,’ all notifications from that tweet are turned off.
Last year, the media company teased this feature and shared an early concept design. At the time, the company wanted to help users “control unwanted attention.”
The feature’s official release comes as the social network continues to integrate anti-abuse features into its platform. Twitter began testing an anti-abuse feature called Safety Mode in September, allowing users subjected to harassment to filter out abuse. Twitter’s Safety Mode analyses interactions and algorithmically block accounts that send abuse. In February, the company extended the Safety Mode test.
Twitter also has anti-abuse features that allow users to specify who can reply to a tweet. All of Twitter, users you follow, or just accounts you mention are among the options, giving users more flexibility and power, such as the ability to delete old tweets from the site.
Despite the company’s back and forth with the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk in the $44 billion acquisition deal that is now a subject of litigation after Musk announced last Friday that he wouldn’t be going ahead with the agreement over allegations that “Twitter undercounts the number of spam accounts on its service, among other reasons.” But that isn’t deterring the platform from making new changes. For example, it’s currently testing a way to co-author a tweet and is also looking into a new long-form Notes feature for users tired of the 280-character limit.