Twitter has announced that it is rolling out a new feature. The feature, which is called “unmentioning“, will give Twitter users the ability to have more control over their mentions.
Going by Twitter’s explanation, and the literal interpretation of the name, the feature will allow users to exclude themselves from any conversation they do not want to be a part of.
The announcement was made by Twitter via a tweet on its official Twitter Safety handle, where it says that the new feature, which began testing in April, will now be rolled out to all its user, across all platforms.
“Sometimes you want to see yourself out. Take control of your mentions and leave a conversation with Unmentioning, now rolling out to everyone on all devices,” Twitter said in a tweet.
To use the feature, users will have to go to the tweet in question, and click the 3-dot menu. You will then see the option that makes you “leave the conversation.“
After tapping the “leave the conversation” option, Twitter will show some follow-up information about what will happen when you use the unmentioning feature:
- Untag your username: Your username stays, but it’ll be untagged from the original tweet and all replies.
- Stop future mentions: People can’t mention you again in this conversation.
- Stop notifications: You won’t receive further notifications but can still see the conversation.
After unmentioning yourself from a tweet, your Twitter handle will change from blue to gray, and this will show others that you have opted out of the conversation, and cannot be tagged back into the thread. Using the unmentioning feature also means that all notifications to the tweet will be turned off.
The creation of this feature comes off the back of Twitter’s quest to empower its users to shove off abuses and internet bullying by introducing anti-abuse features.
In September, 2021, Twitter began testing an anti-abuse feature which it called Safety Mode. The Safety Mode allows users facing harassment to filter out abuse. With Safety Mode, Twitter algorithm will analyse interactions, and blocks accounts that are sending abuse.
Twitter also released an anti-abuse feature that give users the ability to control those who can reply their tweet. The feature give users the option to have their tweet replied to by anyone, users they follow, or accounts they mention. The app also released a feature that let users delete their tweets from websites where the tweets are used.
