Twitter Testing Instagram Close Friends-Like Trusted Friends, Facets and More

Twitter is testing new features namely, “Trust Friends” and “Facets,” that can potentially change the way you tweet. Twitter Trusted Friends is similar to Instagram’s Close Friends, where posts appear to only a select group of people, and in this case, tweets to only a handful number of users. It will be interesting to see how the micro-blogging platform will work out this feature as tweets are public and visible even if users don’t have a Twitter account. Tweets to Trusted Friends is said to appear first on the friend’s timeline. Another feature Twitter is testing is ‘Facets’ that would let users categorise tweets before posting them. It appears that the feature will essentially allow users to sort their tweets into categories, and followers can follow that particular ‘facet’ or the whole account. Finally, the platform is also considering users list particular phrases that they’d rather not see in their replies. The latest ideas are in their early stages, and none are currently in active development.

The new developments come from Twitter designer Andrew Courter via a series of posts on Twitter. Speaking about Twitter Trusted Friends he said, “We hear y’all, toggling your Tweets from public to protected, juggling alt accounts. It could be simpler to talk to who you want, when you want. With Trusted Friends, you could Tweet to a group of your choosing. Perhaps you could also see trusted friends’ Tweets first.” On the other hand, speaking over Twitter Facets, he adds, “Here’s another approach, embracing an obvious truth: we’re different people in different contexts (w/ friends, fam, work, public) Facets, an early idea, lets you Tweet from distinct personas within 1 acct. Others can follow the whole acct … or just Facets they’re interested in.”

Finally, Courter showed off a new concept for filtering replies that would allow users to choose specific words or phrases “they prefer not to see.” If a user replying to a post carries the blocked word or phrases, Twitter will let the author know that it goes against the preference.

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