Twitter May Launch New Features to Simplify Direct Messages, Retweets

The new mute feature will give Twitter users one less reason to lock their DMs.

By Veer Arjun Singh | Updated: 8 October 2020 18:29 IST

The new features will enhance the user experience on Twitter

Highlights

Twitter might soon have the option of muting DM requests
The other feature could make it easier to add text to retweets
They were spotted by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong

Twitter is said to be working on a couple of new features that could make it easier to manage direct messages and retweeting. The first time someone sends you a direct message on Twitter, it arrives in the form of a message request. You have the option to either accept or delete the message(s), or report or block the sender. And unless an action is taken, the sender does not know if the message has been read. Such requests are segregated in a separate list than your accepted DMs.

The microblogging site could soon introduce a new option to let users mute these incoming DM requests. This will take the one-sided chats on Twitter to the end of your message request list, making it easier for you to defer taking any further action. As intended, you will not be notified of future messages in the same conversation and you can simply ignore the requests without explicitly blocking the senders. One less reason to lock new DM requests entirely.

The feature is not live on Twitter yet, nor do we have an official word on when it arrives. Reverse engineering expert, Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane), was the first to spot it.
Wong tweet embed

someone at twitter listened! :D (....? if coincidence, still awesome!)

thank you tweep, whoever you are https://t.co/sdSR1Phu1p
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 7, 2020

The other thing that Wong has spotted is that Twitter is also working on simplifying retweets. The new feature eliminates the need of choosing between retweeting and quoting a tweet from a dropdown when you hit the retweet button. The new option will directly open the tweet composer when you hit retweet. Add some text to quote a tweet or just leave the box empty to post a simple retweet. It saves an extra click for those who, more often than not, prefer adding their thoughts to their retweets.

Twitter is working on making the Retweet button open the composer directly, getting rid of the menu

with this prototype, as of now, it's still possible to retweet by not entering anything in the text area and press the “Retweet” button pic.twitter.com/71BkDct26C
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 7, 2020

The two subtle yet useful leaks add to a growing list of features that Twitter is said to be working on. The one more eagerly awaited feature, spotted again by Wong, is Birdwatch. It's an attempt by Twitter to crowdsource feedback and reign in on the spreaders of misinformation giving the platform a bad name.

In 2020, will WhatsApp get the killer feature that every Indian is waiting for? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

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