Twitter Disables Threaded Conversations Following Negative Response

Twitter has disabled threaded conversations, an experimental way of organizing replies, after receiving user feedback. The social media platform recognized that it made conversations hard to read and thus removed the format from the platform.

Earlier this year, Twitter began experimenting with a new layout which hoped to make tweets and subsequent replies flow more naturally. This resulted in small indications being placed between replies. As reported by The Verge, Twitter announced that it is disabling this feature and will be working on other ways to “improve conversations on Twitter”.

Your feedback shapes Twitter.

We asked and you let us know this reply layout wasn’t it, as it was harder to read and join conversations. So we’ve turned off this format to work on other ways to improve conversations on Twitter. https://t.co/pA4Yd0QfyW

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 3, 2020

Upon the experimental format hitting Twitter, users began providing feedback. Many claimed that it muddied the user experience and ultimately made it harder to follow conversations. Twitter acknowledged this, thus worked on removing the feature. Following up its initial tweet, the TwitterComms account stated that it will be iterating on the platform’s conversation settings. Providing users more context to who they’re interacting with seems to be a priority for the social media company as its stated that its “working to add this”.

Some learnings:
*the new look made convos harder to read & join – we’re exploring other ways to make this easier.
*you want more context about who you’re talking to – we’re working to add this.
*you want more control – we’re iterating on our convo settings.https://t.co/UzS08x4Jcf

— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) December 3, 2020

Additionally, Twitter has announced it is shutting down Twttr, the beta app. Twttr was an experimental platform designed to beta test features like threaded conversations before it released to a wider user base. It may not be a permanent shutdown as Twitter has stated that it’s merely turning off the beta app to conduct new tests in the future. Users of Twttr have been encouraged to use the main Twitter app in the meantime.