Twitter is testing a new way to secretly block notifications from other people on the social network by integrating a "mute" button.
Ever felt the need to stop tweets and retweets being bombarded in your feed from a person that you follow on your timeline, but due to various reasons you cannot unfollow the person. Twitter, the popular micro-blogging social network, might be working on a fix that can help you in such a situation. The company is secretly testing out a new feature for its iOS and Android mobile apps that allows you to secretly block tweets and retweets from other users.
The mute function should not be confused with the block feature, as they both operate in a similar fashion. Muting an account on Twitter is intended for temporary use, while people usually block other accounts with the intention to permanently stop receiving tweets, retweets and DMs. The mute feature is not widely available, but only a small number of users reported having the extra function on their accounts. Twitter user @missambear shared a screenshot, Thursday, showing a mute option for Donald J. Trump's account. The addition of mute does not replace block as it still appears below the new option.
According to the technology news site The Verge, the muting function acts as a "stealth unfollow," ideal for ignoring other users without their knowledge.
Twitter did not confirm the new change but its official blog post about Experiments at Twitter clearly states the internal testing of new features that may not appear to all users. "We also experiment with features that may never be released to everyone who uses Twitter. Those experiments are perhaps even more valuable because they help us decide what not to do -- which is important as we work to keep Twitter simple while improving the user experience," the blog reads.
Third party Twitter clients such as Tweetbot have long included the mute function, which also comes with different time frames. Users can mute others for a day, a week, a month or forever. The feature has also been a part of Tweetdeck, another third party client that was acquired by Twitter in 2011.
Considering Twitter never stops experimenting with new features, it is too soon to tell if the feature will actually see the light of day or be moved to trash.
