Got an annoying Twitter friend who, for whatever reason, you are not allowed to unfollow? No worries: the social media microblogging platform is teasing a new feature that would allow users to mute their more irritating friends without having to hit unfollow.
Numerous users have reported suddenly having the ability to mute friends from the gear menu of their Twitter account. In fact, Twitter seems to be testing the feature with a random selection of users, so you might actually be able mute that TV-spoiling friend of yours right now. Go to a friend’s profile, click the gear menu, and see if you have access to the mute function. If Twitter has enabled the future for your account, it will be easily visible at the top of the list.
If Twitter has not enabled you as a mute function tester, then you may just have to wait for a platform-wide rollout to enjoy the ability to silence your friends. If the reception for the mute function is any indication, though, then it will not be terribly long until Twitter opens up the function for all users. Twitter users have applauded the added feature, which allows them to stop reading the tweets and re-tweets of a friend, but to remain followers of that friend so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings.
In essence, the mute feature is a lot like the unfollow feature on Facebook. When you mute a person, most of their comments will not appear in your feed. If they mention you in a tweet, or message you directly, you will still be able to read those tweets and respond to them, but all comments and interactions not having to do with you will be blocked.
