Twitter has announced that it will soon be introducing a new set of features that will allow users to have more control over which range of people on the app will be permitted to reply to their tweets. Though the feature has been referred to as both Conversation Participants and Conversation Dynamics, its premise is to provide various ways for people to limit the users who can reply to their tweet, based on their Twitter relationship to the user. According to Endgadget, users will be able to choose from four different options: the “Global” option would indicate that the tweet can be accessed and responded to by anyone on the app; the “group” option limits replies to those you follow and mention; the “Panel” option limits the tweet to just those mentioned; and the “Statement” option limits the tweet completely, meaning absolutely no one will be able to reply.
Suzanne Xie, Twitter’s Director of Product Management, said at the CES 2020 on Wednesday, “Getting ratio’d, getting dunked on, the dynamics that happen that we think aren’t as healthy are definitely part of…our thinking about this.” Suzanne is definitely right to some extent in acknowledging how can have detrimental effects on our mental stability. Of course, this feature wouldn’t prevent unwanted DMs or get rid of Twitter trolls in general, but it’s certainly a start.