Twitter was reportedly working on a new “archive tweets” feature and other “social privacy” upgrades.
TWITTER SOCIAL PRIVACY UPGRADES — Twitter was reportedly working on a new “archive tweets” feature and other “social privacy” upgrades.
According to a report on Bloomberg, Twitter was planning to test its privacy-related features aimed at giving its users greater control over their follower lists and who can see their likes and posts, an effort to make users more comfortable sharing and interacting on the platform.
The tools were related to what Twitter executives called “social privacy” or how users managed their identities and reputations on the service — including information such as users’ list of followers, the tweets they liked, and whether their accounts were private or public.
Among features being considered was the ability to edit follower lists and a tool to archive old tweets so that those tweets were no longer visible to others after a specific amount of time designated by the user.
Hiding past tweets could be a popular feature with users who don’t want their posts to exist online forever, offering an easier solution than manually deleting tweets or combing through years-old messages in order to find those they wished they hadn’t sent.
Svetlana Pimkina, a staff researcher at the San Francisco-based company, said that internal research found that many of Twitter users didn’t understand the privacy basics such as whether their account was publicly visible and those users engaged less on Twitter because they didn’t know what other users will be able to see about them.
“When social privacy needs are not met, people limit their self-expression. They withdraw from the conversation,” Pimkina said.
Based on the report, Twitter will begin prompting users to review whether their accounts were private or public beginning in September.
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Bloomberg also reported that Twitter’s privacy team was working on some products in order “to assuage this user uncertainty”, adding that some of those products will be tested soon while others were just in the concept stage at the moment.
Included in Twitter’s list of potential products, according to Bloomberg, were the following:
- Hiding tweets you’ve liked. Twitter users will soon be able to set who can see which tweets they have liked. There’s no timeline for testing the said feature at the moment.
- Removing followers. Twitter users will soon be able to remove their followers. Currently, this was only possible by blocking someone and Twitter planned to test the said feature starting this month.
- Archived tweets. Twitter may soon allow its users hide their old tweets after a set amount of time and old tweets would be visible to the user and not to other users. The company was considering a range of time options — including hiding their tweets after 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days, or hiding their tweets after a full year. Bloomberg reported that the said product didn’t have a launch date and was still in the concept phase.
- Leaving conversations. Twitter users will soon be given the option to remove themselves from a public conversation on the social network. Currently, only the person sending a tweet can choose who to mention and Twitter planned to test the said feature before the end of the year.
Moreover, Bloomberg reported that Twitter had long been open about its product road map and often tested features that weren’t fully launched. However, Twitter also talked a lot about ideas in concept and some of which failed to materialize or took much longer than expected.
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