Twitter is planning new tool to get more people to tweet

The tools relate to what Twitter officials call “social privacy” or how users manage their reputations and identities on the service. This includes information such as a list of a person’s followers, the tweets they like and whether their accounts are public or private.

Among the features being considered are the ability to edit follower lists and a tool to archive old tweets so that they are no longer visible to others after a specific amount of time specified by the user. Hiding past tweets can be a popular feature for people who don’t want their posts to exist online forever, an easy solution to manually deleting posts or searching those people through years-old messages Provide the ones you wish you hadn’t sent.

Internal research found that many Twitter users don’t understand the basics of privacy, such as making their account publicly visible, said Svetlana Pimkina, a staff researcher at the San Francisco-based company. Those users are less engaged on Twitter because they don’t know what other people will be able to see about them.

“When social privacy needs are not met, people limit their self-expression,” Pimkina said. “They withdraw from the conversation.” Twitter will begin prompting people to review whether their accounts are public or private from September.

The company’s privacy team is working on a number of products to address this user uncertainty. According to interviews with team members, some of them will be tested soon, and others are still in the concept stage.

Possible products list include:

• Archived Tweets: Twitter may allow users to hide old tweets after a set amount of time. Tweets will be visible to the account holder, but not to anyone else. The company is considering multiple timing options, including hiding posts after 30, 60 and 90 days or hiding tweets after a full year. This product does not have a launch date, and it is still in the concept stage.

• To delete followers: Users will soon be able to remove followers. This is currently only possible by blocking someone. Twitter plans to test this feature from this month.

• Hide Tweets You Liked: Users will soon be able to set who—everyone, only their followers, or select groups—can see which Tweets they like. There is no timeline for testing this feature.

• leaving the conversation: Users will be given the option to remove themselves from public conversations on Twitter. Today, only the person sending the tweet can choose who to mention. Twitter plans to test it before the end of the year.

Part of Twitter’s inspiration is that employees often see users doing creative workarounds because these features don’t exist, such as blocking and then unblocking someone to remove them as a follower. Lots of other users manually delete old tweets, or toggle back and forth between public and private accounts depending on what they’re posting.

Archiving Tweets, in particular, can help ease the fear of people who worry that their old posts will come back to haunt them in some way, such as when looking for a new job or college. while applying for.