Sometimes, you don’t really want to unfollow someone, you just don’t want to see their bullshit in your feed for a while. If you’ve ever found yourself in that situation, you’ll be happy to learn that it appears Twitter is testing a mute function in their official app.
Users of services like Tweetdeck have been able to mute people, hashtags, or certain phrases for a while now. It’s a popular feature. Now, it looks like Twitter is toying with the idea in their official app. Some Twitter users started seeing a mute option pop up next to their block or report options in their iOS apps a couple of days ago.
What does muting some1 on twitter do ???? 😐 pic.twitter.com/nVf1NN61nr
— 🌱🧚🏼♀️🌷🍄 (@LostS0ull) April 27, 2014
What does muting even do😂 pic.twitter.com/cv2ykj7QhW
— Olivia Wagner (@Oliviawag1) April 27, 2014
Obviously, people are confused. If you mute a user, you won’t see tweets from them of receive notifications about them. Muted users also won’t know that they’ve been muted. It’s a more temporary (and less harsh) way to tune someone out without unfollowing or blocking them.
Not all users currently have this option, so it’s obviously still in testing mode. But I expect this one to stick around, as it’s a pretty useful feature that the official Twitter app has lacked for too long.
Image via Thinkstock, h/t TNW