When one user replies to another, Twitter has traditionally kept the tweet recipient’s account name as part of the tweet. Now, the platform is taking users’ handles out of the equation in an ongoing effort to maximize tweets’ 140-character limit.
The move is still in the test phase, but if recent Twitter test phases are an indication, the platform will probably roll out the change to all users. If so, it risks angering even more long-time users.
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Mashable called the move “arguably the biggest change to Twitter's core product in the company's history.” TechCrunch took its commentary a step further, with one writer calling it “a mess.”
A former Twitter designer even found the change offensive:
Replies on Twitter seem so much more complicated and opaque now. Visually consuming and composing them. Sigh.
— Doug Bowman (@stop) October 28, 2016
While I was still at Twitter, I proposed, unsuccessfully, that replies always get treated as second-class citizens. Smaller avatar, etc…
— Doug Bowman (@stop) October 28, 2016
Some Twitter users said losing users’ handles was too big a departure from the core platform:
I'm honestly baffled by this. Twitter (or rather its users) invented @-username! To remove it from the UI... https://t.co/pQnFqB0Hib
— Ben Thompson (@benthompson) October 30, 2016
Twitter’s users invented the @ - username reply. Embracing it felt like acknowledging the user’s input. Shunning it seems … user hostile.
— Sam Sharma (@s3rioussam) October 30, 2016
What do you think of the change, PR Daily readers?
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