Twitter announced today that it’s rolling out its “Unmentioning” feature to all users on all devices. The new feature, which Twitter initially began testing in April, allows users to remove themselves from conversations they don’t want to be a part of.
“Sometimes you want to see yourself out,” the social media giant said in a tweet. “Take control of your mentions and leave a conversation with Unmentioning, now rolling out to everyone on all devices.”
All users can now select the three-dot menu next to a tweet to pull up a prompt offering to “get you out of this conversation.” The pop-up explains that leaving the conversation will untag you in the replies, though your username will still appear. When you unmention yourself from a tweet, your Twitter handle will turn gray, which will indicate to others that you’ve opted out of the conversation and can’t be tagged back into the thread. Unmentioning yourself will also turn off notifications.
Twitter previewed its unmentioning feature last year and shared an early concept design. At the time, the company expressed its desire to help users “control unwanted attention.”
The official launch of the feature comes as the social network has been building out anti-abuse features into its platform. Last September, Twitter started testing an anti-abuse feature called Safety Mode, which allows users who are facing harassment to filter out abuse. Within Safety Mode, Twitter analyzes interactions and algorithmically blocks accounts that are sending abuse. The company expanded the Safety Mode test in February.
Another anti-abuse feature on Twitter gives users the ability to designate who can reply to a tweet. The options include all of Twitter, users you follow or just accounts you mention. Twitter has also broadly leaned toward giving users more flexibility and power, including the option to delete old tweets off of websites they used to show up on.
