Have you ever followed someone on Twitter whose tweets you didn't necessarily want to see all the time on your timeline -- due to their frequency, annoying nature or whatever reason - but still wanted to keep them as followers? If so, Twitter has a new update for you.
A mute feature has been revealed for Android, iPhone and Web clients that will let you turn off posts or new updates from certain users, but still let you follow them. Their posts will not spam your timeline as well as their retweets. You will also not get push notifications or SMS noticed from their updates.
What is great about the mute button is that no one knows you have it activated, except you. So your followers will not be offended by the fact you do not want to see their updates constantly on your timeline. Another thing that is great about it is that it is reversible at any time.
The feature can be activated by going to the "more" link on any tweet you receive on your timeline. Another way to activate it is by going to the gear icon on the user's Twitter profile page you want to mute.
The feature is going to be rolling out now and should be available for everyone over the next few weeks. Keep in mind that this is a native Twitter app feature, but has been introduced through third-party Twitter clients before. Tweetbot is one of these clients that has it available in its iOS and Web apps.
"Muting a user on Twitter means their Tweets and Retweets will no longer be visible in your home timeline, and you will no longer receive push or SMS notifications from that user," Twitter said on its blog. "The muted user will still be able to fave, reply to, and retweet your Tweets; you just won't see any of that activity in your timeline."
It is good to see Twitter listen to some feedback and add features from time to time to make the experience less annoying but still feature-rich. Sometimes we may have friends or followers whose company we enjoy, but who we do not necessarily want spamming our timelines. This is a great feature for this regard.
