If you’re a Twitter user, you may soon be able to share tweets with a specific set of people. The “Close Friends” feature on Instagram allows you to do the same thing, though in Twitter’s case, you’ll be restricting your tweets to your “Flock”.
Twitter once teased this feature last year, referring to it as “Trusted Friends” in July 2021. Mobile developer, Alessandro Paluzzi, has since been following the development of this feature on the app, and it seems like it’s finally taking shape.
A look at Paluzzi’s most recent findings gives a better idea of how the feature will work — Twitter appears to be working on a page that will provide more information on Flock, and it will explain that you can add up to 150 people to a group. Twitter says that tweets sent to your “Flock” can only be seen and responded to by its members. There is also the option of removing people you don’t want in your “Flock” at any time. Twitter says that they won’t be notified.
Paluzzi also noted that if you are a member of someone’s Flock and that person sends out a tweet, a label may appear beneath that tweet that reads: “You can see this tweet because the author has added you to their Flock.” This should make distinguishing between close friends and everyone else you follow on Twitter much easier. Before you send a tweet to your Flock, Twitter appears to show an audience option, allowing you to choose between all of Twitter and the selected users you specify.
In September, Twitter added a feature called Invite-Only Communities that lets you connect with people who have the same interests as you. Like your Flock, you can send tweets to a specific Community rather than all of your followers. Twitter is yet to reveal when the “Close friends” feature will be available to everyone.
In November 2020, Twitter launched a new feature worldwide called “Fleets” so users can share fleeting thoughts. This was eight months after the company claimed it had successfully tested the feature, and that it was ready to go public. Then, eight months later, Twitter’s VP Consumer Product, IIya Brown, announced in a blog post that the company would bring down the feature on August 3, 2021, from its app.
The question on everyone’s would be, “It appears that Fleets did not work for Twitter. So would Flocks do well?” This, we hope to find out when the feature circulates to the general public.
