Twitter Teases Debuting Feature Users Have Wanted for Years
Twitter has been subjected to some interesting evolutions over the years, with updates that [...]
Twitter has been subjected to some interesting evolutions over the years, with updates that drastically change how people utilize the social networking platform. Even then, there are still some features that fans have been long-campaigning to see brought to life — and it sounds like one could soon be on the way. While not quite an Edit feature, Twitter product designer Dominic Camozzi teased plans to create an "Unmention" feature. As the name suggests, the feature would allow users to untag themselves from other people's tweets, as opposed to having to mute or block the participants involved with a particularly popular mention.
Unmention yourself
I want to make it easier to untag yourself from a Tweet or conversation you don't want to be involved in.
Just pick “Unmention yourself from this conversation” from the more info menu and the link to your profile will be removed. pic.twitter.com/nfHIyReE9f
— Dominic Camozzi (@_dcrc_) June 14, 2021
Camozzi also revealed plans to further optimize the process of mentions, including making yourself unmentionable from certain accounts, or receiving a special notification if a "potential unwanted situation" arises. This will even include an individual mention ban, if someone you don't follow tries to mention you in a tweet.
There will even be an option to prevent all users from mentioning you for a specific stretch of time.
Settings
You can also restrict certain accounts from mentioning you.
Need some peace and quiet? Keep EVERYONE from mentioning you for 1 day, 3 days, or 7 days. pic.twitter.com/d50JIcsPok
— Dominic Camozzi (@_dcrc_) June 14, 2021
According to a Twitter spokesperson (via Mashable), the Unmention feature is "very much in the early ideation and research stage", but that in their current form, "the mock designs shared would only disable the link to the account mentioned." While this might not completely prevent harassment or other unpleasant interactions on Twitter, it could potentially soften the blow, especially in the right circumstances. Granted, this function wouldn't prevent users from still tweeting about a certain individual — which makes sense, given how the platform has already approached the idea of "editing" the content of tweets.
"You might send a tweet and then someone might retweet that and an hour later you completely change the content of that tweet and that person that retweeted the original tweet is now retweeting and rebroadcasting something completely different," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told WIRED in January last year.