A new “soft block” feature is being introduced by Twitter, allowing any user on the web to remove a follower without blocking them. Visit your profile, click Followers, click the three-dot drop-down arrow next to a follower, and then select “Remove this follower.”
An example of this option can be seen in the Twitter image above. If you remove a follower, they will not be made aware of the change. It differs from a block in that a person can still view and direct message you while your tweets are still hidden from their feed. If you unfollow someone, they can choose to re-follow you.
This could be handy if you don’t want to block someone completely, but you still want to free up some space from them. Instead of blocking and unblocking people one at a time, Twitter has introduced a new, streamlined process. Users now have more control over their Twitter experience, thanks in part to the ability to unfollow or block a following. There’s a new safety mode that prevents abusive accounts temporarily, but it’s unclear when it will be made available more generally.
A similar tool exists on the photo-sharing and social media platform Instagram called Restrict account. With this function, you can set a time limit on how much time someone else can spend on Instagram.
Instagram has added tools like Close Friends and Hide Story From XYZ Account over time to help you keep track of who may see your stories and photos. Restricted accounts let you control who may post on your profile and what they can publish about you. There’s also an experimental Twitter Heads-Up feature in use by certain Android and iOS users right now.
Twitter announced that it is experimenting with alerts that will notify users if a conversation is getting too intense or heated. This is intended at promoting healthy dialogue, according to Twitter. Before participating in a conversation, people will be alerted via Twitter that it has the potential to be intense. While tweeting, Twitter will display messages such as, “Let’s keep an eye out for each other.” when people react.
