Twitter does several beta tests to a subset of users before rolling out which could be released to the general public later on. They are always geared to make our experience better adding incremental features over time.
This next test is a feature we have seen in certain third party apps. According to The Next Web, Twitter was testing a way to mute words which later on disappeared.
Twitter on iOS now lets you mute keywords and hashtags!!
h/t @KendallNKardash pic.twitter.com/0eSYXZjDG8
— Matt Navarra (I quit X. Follow me on Threads) (@MattNavarra) October 28, 2016
Twitter was testing that on the iOS app where you could add words that you would want to mute from your timeline. From the screenshots, it seems like you add the list of words you’d like to mute on the settings under “muted words.” For each word you add on the list, there is a toggle on the right which when on mutes it from your timeline.
You can expect such functionality to help you filter out certain words or hashtags from appearing from your timeline. The muting feature that Twitter has implemented on the official apps has been the ability to mute specific people from your timeline and this new development is an improvement on that.
The author noticed that it was quickly removed which means it is a server side update and apparently a source told him that the feature was accidentally enabled on schedule. We don’t know about the Android side of things but you bet if they add it on iOS, it will be updated with it too. On iOS, Twitter users have enjoyed the muting words feature on a third party app like Tweetbot so that subset of users won’t see the big deal about it.