Twitter pushed a new version of its iOS app out to users this morning. It contained a completely reworked reply system that dramatically transformed the process of mentioning other users. People weren’t impressed though, taking to Twitter to tweet about the app.
Replies are sent on Twitter by prefixing the username of the person you’re mentioning with the “@” character. This makes it obvious who’s being involved, allowing lengthy public chat threads to be developed. The update removed this though, replacing the “@” character with a different way of presenting the reply in the timeline.
Tweets sent as a response to earlier messages were indented in the timeline under the heading “replying to.” The “@” character was not publicly displayed. Instead, the real name of the user was appended after the “Replying to” text. The tweet, without the username, was left positioned beneath the new header.
Users also found that usernames tagged into replies didn’t count towards the 140-character limit, allowing hundreds of users to be tagged into a simple tweet. This could make it much simpler for spammers to reach new people, cutting down the amount of effort required to send a notification to thousands of users.
The update attracted attention around the internet this morning as users complained about the change. A few hours later, Twitter confirmed the entire thing was a mistake that was only intended to be seen by a small group of users. It has since reversed the update and restored replies to their former self.
“Today, an experiment around replies accidentally went out to everyone on iOS briefly,” said Twitter. “Upside, we got helpful feedback – we’re listening!”
Although Twitter has rolled back the update, the feature is likely to reappear in the future. Earlier this year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said the company is trying to make its platform more accessible to attract new users. He noted that people currently have to learn a “weird syntax” to perform simple tasks, such as prefixing replies with the “@” symbol.
The new system appears to be designed as a response to this. By displaying the real name of the original poster on a separate line, the context of the reply is more evident to new users. For existing Twitter fans, it’s a frustrating change that removes a favourite feature though.
Dorsey has also taken aim at other “ugly” aspects of Twitter, including the “.@username” oddity previously used to direct a tweet at a user and post it publicly. This convention was removed from the platform in September, alongside a relaxation of the rules around tweet character limits. Dorsey said it makes Twitter a less frustrating network.