Twitter has a new feature that lets you decide who can reply to your tweets – here’s how it works

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Twitter just unrolled a new feature aimed at making unwanted replies a thing of the past. Now you’ll be able to limit who can jump into your replies, hopefully curtailing the “reply guys” before they even get a chance to reply. However, it won’t stop them quote retweeting though, so I guess you can’t win them all.

You might have to wait to use it, as only a “limited group” of Twitter users has access to the feature right now. It seems that I’m part of that group, so here’s a short explainer. The new feature is very similar to Facebook’s post view settings, so here’s how it works:

1. Open Twitter
2. Hit the Compose Tweet button
3. You’ll see a small globe icon, which by default is set to Everyone can reply
   

   Image: KnowTechie

4. Tapping on that icon lets you choose who will be able to reply to your tweet, with the choices being: Everyone, People you follow, or Only people you mention
5. If you select the third option, you also have to tag other accounts in your tweet for it to work

Here’s the function in action, with @Twitter showing the amusing side of not letting anyone reply to your tweet:

Reply if there’s a better app

— Twitter (@Twitter) May 20, 2020

And here’s Twitter talking with some out-of-this-world conversationalists

u up? @NASA

— Twitter (@Twitter) May 20, 2020

Twitter has been trying to rework how replies work for a while now. This includes threaded responses and letting thread starters hide replies they don’t feel contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way.

This is a much-needed addition to the micro-blogging platform and a feature I’m sure a lot of folks will appreciate. We all have those few followers who reply to every single tweet we put out there, so this will help drown out the noise.

Is this a feature you’ve been waiting for? Do you plan to put this to use? Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.