How to mute words and phrases on Twitter

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Twitter is a great place where people go to talk about a variety of things, but sometimes those things can be overwhelming. Whether it is spoilers for a movie you haven’t seen yet or the constant barrage of politically driven posts and conspiracy theories, it can be a lot to take in.

The *waves vaguely* algorithm now seems to push unwanted things into your feed and often it can lead to stress, anxiety, or just pure anger. At the very least, it’s annoying and at worst it’s downright terrible.

Luckily, Twitter has a muting feature that does a pretty good job of eliminating those things from your feed, so let’s dive into that so you can start getting rid of words and phrases that you’d prefer not to see.

How to mute a word or phrase on the iOS Twitter app

Muting words on iOS couldn’t be simpler.

1. Make sure your Twitter app is up-to-date
2. Find a tweet with the word you’d like to mute and long-press the word (you can also drag the indicator to include a phrase)
   

   Image: KnowTechie

3. Look for Mute on the far right
4. From there, simply decide where you want to mute the word and for how long
   

   Image: KnowTechie

Sadly, this feature is only available on iOS and is not yet available to Android users.

How to mute a word or phrase on desktop

If you find yourself using Twitter on desktop more often, it may be easier to mute the word or phrase on there.

1. Open up Twitter.com on your desktop and look for More on the left side of your screen
2. Click that and navigate to Settings and privacy
   
   

   Image: KnowTechie

3. Below Account, you’ll see Privacy and safety – click that
4. If you’ve never used the feature before, you’ll get a pop-up explaining what it is
5. Find the Plus arrow in the top right and click on it
   

   Image: KnowTechie

6. From here, you can enter words and phrases to remove and from where/how long

That’s it, you’ve now successfully muted words and phrases from Twitter. Now go and bask in the glory of a better timeline.

What do you think? Plan on using this Twitter feature? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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• There’s now a tool that lets you edit tweets on Twitter…sort of
• Twitter’s new feature makes it easier to thread multiple tweets together – here’s how to use it
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Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.