New Twitter feature lets people restrict replies to exclude “reply guys”

If you’re on Twitter – and especially if you’re a woman on Twitter – you’re probably well aware of the “answer guy” phenomenon.

It goes something like this: You post something on Twitter – a joke, a fact, a personal story – and you get a bunch of unhelpful, distracting, and sometimes hateful responses in addition to the thoughtful responses to your original tweet.

Twitter today unveiled a new feature that it has been testing since May to help people exclude responders and other unwanted interactions on the platform. Now, when you tweet, you can restrict who can reply to the people you follow or the people you mention (by tagging their grip with the @ tag) in the tweet. People who are unable to reply can still view, share and ‘like’ the tweets if you restrict replies.

Here’s what it looks like:

As for those who feel out of place – reply or otherwise – they can still quote and retweet these tweets with limited responses.

Restricting responses is an important feature because it is designed to help some people who might otherwise feel bombarded with harassment on Twitter to post more comfortably on the platform. According to the internal investigation by Twitter, people who have submitted reports of abuse are three times more likely to use these settings.

The answer-limiting feature is also useful for people trying to have a focused conversation in a small group, such as a virtual panel discussion or a 1: 1 interview. Take, for example, the interview that Recode co-founder Kara Swisher had in February with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey via Twitter. The Q&A between Dorsey and Swisher was almost impossible to follow, as they were both bombarded with distracting answers that cluttered the discussion. (Dorsey joke about the event when Twitter first announced the response-limiting feature in May.)

Since Twitter has been testing this feature, the company says it is saw some solid progress, as detailed in a blog post by Twitter director of product management Suzanne Xie. Xie wrote that people who test the feature see positive results: They say they feel more protected from spam and abuse and are more comfortable sharing their thoughts as a result.

“These settings help some people feel safer and can lead to more meaningful conversations, while still allowing people to see different points of view,” Xie wrote.

And, mercifully, Twitter says that “answer guys” are not instead shaking people’s DMs – for now. It’s too early to tell how this feature will be received now that it’s being rolled out on a broader scale. But the hope is that the platform will be a little less scary for some people.

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