No, Twitter’s newest feature isn’t officially called “Ghosting” — but it might as well be.
The company announced Thursday that, after almost 10 months, it’s finally begun testing a new way for overwhelmed, annoyed, or just plain uninterested users to dip out of the notifications nightmare known as getting mentioned in a tweet and then having tons of people reply. Say hello to “Unmention,” which Twitter is soft launching for some users on the web.
“How do you say ‘Don’t @ me,’ without saying ‘Don’t @ me,'” wrote Twitter. “We’re experimenting with Unmentioning—a way to help you protect your peace and remove yourself from conversations—available on Web for some of you now.”
What does that mean, exactly? Well, according to an accompanying GIF, select users now have the option to “leave this conversation.” That should, at least in theory, untag them from other people’s tweets where they’ve been directly mentioned by their handle. Now, if the GIF is to be believed, this won’t remove a user’s handle from the offending tweet in question, but it will break the link functionality.
We asked Twitter how many users are in the test group, and where Unmention is being tested (often Twitter limits new feature tests to specific countries or areas), but didn’t exactly get a detailed response.
“It’s rolling out to a small group on web,” was all a company spokesperson was willing to confirm. In other words, don’t be too shocked if you, specifically, don’t get the ability to unmention yourself in the immediate future.
But, maybe if you’re lucky, you will one day soon. Because sometimes, sometimes, deleting your account is an overreaction.
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