You Can Now Easily Hide Tweet Replies Without Muting Or Blocking

Twitter users, you've been waiting for this one. If you've ever begun a tweet and, suddenly, it took a turn for the unexpected with a negative reply from another user, you are going to love this new feature on Twitter. As of Sept. 19, you now have the ability to hide replies. Twitter has been testing this for a while in Canada, and seeing positive results, Japan and America are now both getting the test feature. If you're wondering how to hide replies on Twitter, read more to test the new feature for yourself.

Before the hide reply feature, users could block or mute accounts, use notification filters, and mute keywords to avoid seeing bothersome posts. However, there was no way to hide unwanted replies on Twitter. This new feature could be a game changer.

According to a Twitter rep, the company began testing "hide tweet" in Canada in July to "look at the impact" it would have on conversations. On Twitter, users could previously mute tweets on their own threads, but everyone else on Twitter could still see it. And, of course, you could block another user, but that prevented them from interacting at all on the platform. And in case you're wondering, if you choose to hide a reply from another Twitter user, they will not receive a notification that their reply has been hidden, according to their blog post.

How to hide replies on Twitter

Let's get down to how to hide replies on Twitter. Keep in mind that users are still able to see the hidden replies if they click the "hidden reply" button.

It's simple enough:

The hide reply feature was first announced back in February 2019, and reported on several outlets, such as The Verge and Tech Crunch. According to Tech Crunch, the "feature was first discovered by Jane Manchun Wong." Then, Michelle Yasmeen Haq, the Senior Product Manager at Twitter, stepped in to confirm that they were indeed testing this feature.

Twitter was, in general, concerned about the users and making their social media platform more positive, by making this option available. Twitter's post about the "hide reply" feature, which appeared Sept. 19, revealed that they saw "positive trends during [the] initial test in Canada." These results included users potentially reconsidering their Twitter replies following their tweets being hidden.

This makes it possible for users to better moderate their threads and move the conversation forward, without it going an unwanted direction via negative or hurtful replies. It doesn't mean that it will fix everything, but it's a start to a more positive Twitter — and more protection for the users.

If you decide to utilize the hide reply feature, you can also choose to unhide any hidden tweets on a post later. You simply do that by going under the hidden reply section via the icon, clicking the down arrow icon on the reply you wish to unhide, and select "unhide reply".

I am on board with Twitter's decision to decrease toxicity and make its platform more user-friendly and positive. Obvi, it's clear Twitter's hide reply feature is going to be a hit with most users who have experienced replies that made them question everything or feel like their whole tweet thread just derailed.