What you need to know
- Twitter's "hide replies" feature is launching in the U.S. and Japan today.
- The feature gives users the ability to hide replies that are irrelevant or abusive in nature.
- Twitter says the feature will give users more control over their conversations.
Twitter introduced a controversial "Hide Replies" feature in July this year, giving users on its platform greater control over the conversations started by them. After being tested in Canada for several weeks, the feature is finally being expanded to the United States and Japan.
The feature doesn't actually hide the tweets though. Anyone who wishes to view the hidden replies can do so with an additional click. Despite that, however, the "Hide Replies" feature can help ensure that inappropriate replies will not be seen by the vast majority of the conversation's participants.
The test allows a person who starts a conversation to hide replies that they may consider to be irrelevant, abusive, or simply unintelligible. According to Twitter, people in Canada who used the feature thought that it was a helpful way to control what they saw.
However, some of them were concerned hiding a reply could potentially be misunderstood and lead to confusion or frustration. To address those concerns, Twitter will now check in with users after they hide a Tweet to see if they want to block that person's account.
Twitter also found that people were more likely to reconsider their interactions when their tweet was hidden. A survey conducted by the company found that 27% of users who had their tweets hidden were willing to reconsider how they interact with others in the future.
How to change your Twitter password and activate two-factor authentication
