According to the latest report, Twitter appears to be working on a feature that will allow users to share tweets with specific groups of people. If this sounds familiar, that’s because Instagram’s Close Friends feature lets you do the exact same thing — but in Twitter’s case, users will limit their tweets to Flock.
Twitter first showed the feature to users last July, when it called it Trusted Friends. Since then, mobile developer Alessandro Paluzzi has been tracking Twitter’s progress, and it’s really starting to take shape. Paluzzi’s recent discovery gave users some insight into how the feature might work — Twitter appears to be developing a page with more information on Flock, which explains that users can add up to 150 members.
📲 FLASH I #Twitter travaille sur une nouvelle fonctionnalité appelée « Twitter Flock », similaire à « Amis Proches » d’#Instagram.
(@MattNavarra) #TwitterFlock pic.twitter.com/egzJjBmdsH
— Cerfia (Conflits France) (@CerfiaFR) January 22, 2022
Only these users can view or reply to Flock’s tweets addressed to users. If users decide they no longer want someone to join their Flock, Twitter points out that users can remove people from the list at any time and they won’t be notified. If a user is in someone’s Flock and they send a tweet, Paluzzi noticed that a label might appear under the tweet that said: You can see this tweet because the author has added you to them in the Flock.
This should make it easy for users to distinguish close friends from others they follow on Twitter. To send tweets to Flock, it looks like Twitter will display an audience option before users send, letting users choose between all Twitter and other users of their choice.
Twitter launched invite-only communities back in September, a similar feature that lets you connect with users who share interests. Just like users can limit their tweets to groups, users can tweet to specific communities instead of all their followers. It’s unclear when Twitter’s “close friends” feature will be available to all users.
Twitter spokesperson Tatiana Britt told The Verge: “Twitter is always working on new ways to help people have healthy conversations, and we’re currently exploring ways for people to share more privately. We don’t have any further news about the feature at this time. shared, but we can confirm that ‘Twitter Flock’ is just a placeholder name.”
