Twitter may be developing an escape route for those who do not wish to participate in a conversation. May allow to un-tag, un-mention from tweets & conversations.
On Friday, Jane Manchun Wong, a journalist, and researcher, posted an apparent screenshot of a new “leave this chat” function.
As shown in the screenshot, the functionality would un-tag your username from a Twitter chat, prevent people from referencing you in the topic again, and prevent you from receiving notifications about it. (The thread is still visible.)
The feature differs from “mute this conversation,” an existing option that disables alerts for a thread in which you’ve been mentioned.
According to a follow-up tweet, leaving the conversation causes your Twitter to handle to appear as plain text in the tweet where you’re referenced, rather than the hyperlink that would normally be displayed if someone tapped your Twitter handle.
This may create friction, discouraging other users from dragging you into secondary dialogues and signaling your disinterest in participation.
It’s a scenario I find myself in on a regular basis.
A piece I authored was tweeted with my handle, and then two or more people started to have a stupid dispute in the thread, becoming progressively irritated with each other.
Because my Twitter account is tagged, every post is forwarded to me, and every word of rubbish appears in my Mentions.
It can also happen when you react to someone’s tweet, and you and the other person are having a fascinating dialogue, and then other people join in, and the thread devolves into chaos.
Lindsey Weber invented the phrase “Twitter canoe” to describe this predicament.
A Twitter canoe is a conversation that includes more than three people. Lindsey Weber of Vulture created the word in 2012, but it gained traction this year.
Canoes are frequently started when someone inserts themselves into a conversation between two people. Others then feel free to jump in, and there is soon little to no space for actual conversation as the thread grows in size.
Participants are encouraged to “grab a paddle” in order to “ashore” the canoe before it “sinks.” Thousands of people have drowned after their Twitter canoes were overturned.
Twitter looks to be working on a simple solution: a ‘Leave this conversation’ button.
Jane Manchun Wong, a reverse engineering mastermind, discovered an onboarding screen for the feature.
Let’s get you out of this discussion. Sometimes you just don’t want to participate. When you leave a chat, you will:
- Remove your username tag. Your username will remain, but it will be removed from the original Tweet and all responses.
- Stop any further mentions. People are not allowed to bring you up again in this discourse.
- Stop receiving alerts. You will no longer receive notifications, but you can still view the conversation.
Wong claims that if someone tries to @ you within the thread, it will merely remain as text and not be converted into a link, which means you will not be notified.
Twitter, as usual, declined to clarify whether it is testing the feature.
However, the business has gradually introduced minor controls over how other users interact with your account.
This includes changes that simplify existing choices, such as requiring a user to unfollow you, as well as limitations on replies and notifications when a large account retweets you.
This feature would be on the more dramatic end of the scale, but it would also add an option that many users could welcome when they get tagged in an annoying discussion.
Published By: Jaspreet Singh
Edited By: Kritika Kashyap
