Twitter’s latest change has everyone confused AF

While having more characters in your Twitter replies sounds like it could only be a good thing, turns out that’s not the case. The social media site is testing a new change, which just so happens to be removing people’s Twitter handles from replies. It’s intended to streamline conversations and help reduce character counts to make the most of your tweet’s 140-character limit.

Yet, the response from test users has been negative for a number of reasons, including the simple fact that no @username in replies is confusing AF.

Even reading about the change without experiencing it firsthand (like test users have done) is mind-boggling. So we can’t imagine what it’s like for Twitter users who actually are seeing this change being implemented on their feed.

The editor-in-chief at TechCrunch, Matthew Panzarino outlined the flaws of this Twitter update, which includes this: You can’t see who you are replying to anymore.

https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/792047256098607104

What’s baffling users perhaps more than the general usability issue is that it might actually make avoiding Internet trolls — something that Twitter is infamous for having —  more difficult.

Tressie McMillan Cottom even wrote how the potential update makes it harder for her to avoid replying to troll bait:

I just published “Twitter’s New @Replies re-design isn’t just stupid; it’s really stupid.” https://t.co/t8SRFW4c78

— Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd) October 30, 2016

Other users shared McMillan Cottom’s sentiments and are annoyed that Twitter is making updates to replies rather than focusing on helping to deter and block trolls.

twitter: we're removing usernames from replies
everyone: what about hate speech
twitter: oh god no don't worry that's staying in

— failnaut (@failnaut) October 26, 2016

I see that Twitter has made it impossible to distinguish between tweets and replies, definitely a thing people want more than abuse controls

— Sam Adams (@SamuelAAdams) October 28, 2016

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While it’s not shocking that users are dissatisfied with something that appears to make reading replies more convoluted, it’s essential to remember that implementing a change on a massive social media platform is not for the faint of heart — especially on a site with such passionate users.

As the removal of @s in replies is just in testing right now, here’s hoping Twitter will reply (*ahem*) to users’ concerns and create a solution most people will feel comfortable using.