We Can Now Control Replies to Tweets on the Twitter App

The Twitter space has gradually become a public square, but it does not mean that we have to talk to everyone who walks past us. There has been an increasing need to promote meaningful conversations on the app and help users reduce the increased rate of spam and abuse in their replies.

Twitter has announced a new feature that can allow users to limit who can reply to their Tweets. When you begin a tweet, a small globe icon will appear at the bottom of your tweet. You can tap it and limit the replies to just those following you, or better still, you can tag in the tweet those who can reply. If you do nothing, the default mode would be to allow everyone to respond to the tweet. 

Users who cannot reply to your tweet will get a greyed-out icon, but they will still be able to view, like, retweet, and retweet with comments.

This new feature is in line with Twitter’s effort to provide more control and clamp down on abusive or trolling replies, especially when tweeting about political topics and other sensitive issues. It also helps to keep a conversation public but within a specific group on track without interruption. This helps to prevent unwanted replies from getting in the way of meaningful conversations.

There are still a few hurdles to cross as Twitter tries to promote meaningful conversations. One of which is that tweets can still be “quote-tweeted,” which allows trolls and others to bypass restrictions even if they cannot directly reply to the initial tweet.

Placing an embargo on certain tweets has been such a huge step towards controlling tweet trolling. In addition, Twitter may well be on its way to verifying more users as a complementary effort to minimizing spam and abuse on the app. 

What do you think about this new feature? Does this encourage you to be more open with your thoughts on Twitter without fear of abuse and spam? We would like to hear from you in the comments below.