After testing them out in recent months, Twitter today announced that their new tweet response control options will be made available to all users on iOS, Android and twitter.com.
As proposed by Twitter:
“Here’s how it works. Before you tweet, choose who can reply with three options: 1) everyone (default Twitter, and the default setting), 2) only people you follow, or 3) only people you mentioned. Tweets with the last two settings will be tagged and the reply icon will turn gray for people who are unable to reply. People who are unable to reply can still view, retweet, retweet, share and like these tweets. “
As mentioned, Twitter began testing its response checks with selected users in May, and since then Twitter says it has seen the tools used to conduct interviews, panel discussions and more, expand the potential usage options for tweets.
Twitter also notes that users in the test pool have said they feel more comfortable tweeting, and more protected from spam and abuse, which has led them to think longer, deeper thoughts, especially on sensitive topics.
“People who have experienced abuse find these settings useful – those who have submitted abuse reports are 3x more likely to use these settings.”
That’s a good outcome, but there is another concern, which is by limiting who can respond to tweets, politicians and brands are theoretically able to state opposing views, which could make their statements more acceptable than they really are.
Twitter has data on that too – according to early feedback, Twitter says people still share their opinion via the ‘retweet with comments’ option, while the retweet with comments timeline for reply-restricted tweets, 4x more frequent attempts than normal, unlimited tweets.
However, even so, Twitter is also working on improving its labels for reply-restricted tweets, to ensure that users are fully aware of what is happening, and who can engage directly with anyone.
Twitter is also working on additional improvements to the option, including the capacity to iNivite people to chat after chat, allowing users to build on engaging conversations over time, without having to start a new thread.
It seems like an interesting option, and the early notes suggest that there is a general understanding of how the process works, which should limit abuse. And that could, like Twitter notes, lead to more cases of tweet usage – the original use case for this particular option was a one-on-one interview via tweet, which was almost impossible to follow because the hashtag stream became so cluttered with answers and comments.
Now, by limiting replies, you could have an intimate discussion that others can follow more easily – in addition to the ability to stop unwanted replies on your tweets.
It will now be interesting to see if these early usage trends hold up on a broader scale.
The new tweet response controls are available to all users from today.
