Twitter had announced last year that it was working on an alternative timeline for “Trusted Friends” so users can share tweets with a selected few only. The feature is yet to be available to everyone but it seems to have been rebranded as Flock.
Mobile developer Alessandro Paluzzi — via The Verge — has been keeping track of Twitter’s progress, and things are starting to take shape. His recent findings offer insight into how the feature might function. According to Paluzzi, you can add up to 150 members, who can view or reply to tweets sent out to your Flock. If you decide you don’t want someone in your Flock anymore, you can remove people from your list at any time, and they won’t get a notification.
In September 2021, the company officially launched Twitter Communities, which work in a similar way but are focused on a group of users interested in a specific topic. With Twitter Flock, conversations become more personal.
“Twitter is always working on new ways to help people engage in healthy conversations, and we’re currently exploring ways to let people share more privately. We don’t have any further news to share about the feature at this time, but we can confirm ‘Twitter Flock’ is just a placeholder name,” Twitter spokesperson Tatiana Britt told The Verge.
A question that some may ask is how the feature will work when a follower tries to re-tweet a tweet that has been sent to a ‘Flock’. A bit like Close Friends on Instagram, let’s see how the feature rolls out.