Twitter finally copies an Instagram feature it should have had ages ago
You can add 150 people to your circle
So how does this work?
As you can see in the GIF tweeted by the company, you have to create a circle by adding Twitter users to it, and select your circle every time you tweet if you want to share something only with them.
Currently, you can make only one circle with 150 people in it. You can include anyone — even people who are not following you — in that circle.
It’s unclear if I’d see someone’s tweet on my timeline if they include me in their circle, and I don’t follow them. We’ve asked Twitter for clarification, and we’ll update the story if we hear back.
Twitter said that you can’t remove yourself from a circle, but you can mute a conversation. That sounds annoying if I have to do it for every tweet.
Going private
The companyclarifiedthat with this new feature, you can’t tweet whatever you want and expect to get away with it. Twitter’s platform rules still apply for tweets posted to your circle. So anyone can report these tweets for abuse and spam, and the company may take actions on those posts or your account.
Twitter’s moving more towards the concept of private tweeting. So instead of dumping all your hot takes on one timeline, you can post different things to different sets of people.
Last year, the firm introducedsubreddit-like Communitiesfor people to post about shared interests.
The circle feature is for posting more generic tweets, but to a limited number of people you trust and feel safe expressing certain things.
We’ll have to wait and see how these features evolve (if and) when Musk takes over Twitter, and applieshis own ideas of free speech.
Story byIvan Mehta
Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.“Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.”
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