Twitter seems to be preparing a new function that would allow to apply a little more privacy to certain tweets, since it would be testing a new function similar to the one that Instagram has in its Reels. We are talking about the “friends only” function, an option that allows you to configure the publication you are going to launch so that it is only visible to those you consider friends and trusted people.
Twitter just for friends
This has been shown by Andrew Courter, the company’s designer, who through his official account has shown some first sketches of how the function would be implemented. The first images reveal a drop-down that could have several variants, since a first proposal shows the function that many would expect (if we have Instagram as a reference) since it would be in charge of filtering the audience to which the tweet would be directed.
Ever want to Tweet, but not to everybody?
We’re exploring a bunch of ways to control who can see your Tweets. Here are two early ideas (we’re not building these yet).
I’d love your feedback! 🧵⬇️ pic.twitter.com/o1lmAQBlnt
– A Designer (@a_dsgnr) July 1, 2021
Thus, we could choose between “Everyone” or “Trusted friends”, so that the tweet to be sent will only reach the friends that we consider to be trusted (after a previous configuration). This, in addition, as Courter himself points out, would allow the timeline to give priority to the tweets of friends, thus helping you not to miss the tweets of the people you care about.
Facets
But this filtering would go even further, since another of the ideas they are considering is to create groups according to facets. Imagine that you want to have a more serious profile visible for work, and a more casual and conversational one for your friends and other people. Well that’s where the facets come into play, some groups in which your tweets will be destined according to your criteria and to which you will give access to your contacts.
Here’s another approach, embracing an obvious truth: we’re different people in different contexts (w / friends, fam, work, public)
Facets, an early idea, lets you Tweet from distinct people within 1 acct. Others can follow the whole acct… or just Facets they’re interested in. pic.twitter.com/URt5UXeoa1
– A Designer (@a_dsgnr) July 1, 2021
If you want a certain user to only see your serious tweets, you will only have to add it to your “Serious” facet, but if on the contrary you want them to see your more casual tweets, you can add it to your “joker” facet. This selection will not be limited to a single facet, since you can define as many facets as you want for each user you want.
Bad vibe outside
Finally, another very interesting function is to be able to create a list of unwanted words, so that we avoid receiving responses that include some of those forbidden words. The idea is none other than to somehow reduce the harassment that users often suffer after receiving many obscene and offensive comments. So they could have more control of the tweets they receive. This. It will not prevent the other person from tweeting, but it will help reduce the visibility of the offense by staying deep in the conversation.
All these changes are very interesting, but at the moment they are nothing more than sketches that would have to somehow reach production. We will see if we see these functions active in some test accounts and if it finally reaches the whole world, something that we certainly would not mind seeing.
