The microblogging platform Twitter is working on a feature that will allow tweets that can only be seen by a user’s selected friends.
In July last year, Twitter revealed that it will let users designate ‘trusted friends’ such that some tweets would only be visible to those added to the category.
Alessandro Paluzzi, developer, and reverse engineer stated that the feature is currently in the works and that Twitter has assigned the placeholder ‘Flock’ to the feature.
#Twitter keeps working on the implementation of Twitter Flock (Trusted Friends) 👀 pic.twitter.com/roizS5K99K
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) January 14, 2022
The feature will allow users to add up to 150 users to a list, which will be able to see and respond to any tweets sent out. Tweets sent out via the Flock feature will alert users added to the flock that they are a part of the group and are the only ones who can view that particular tweet.
A user can edit their flock at any time, while Twitter claims that anyone removed from a flock will not be notified.
In a statement given to The Verge, the company stated that it is “always working on new ways to help people engage in healthy conversations, and [is] currently exploring ways to let people share more privately.”
When Twitter first revealed that it would be adding a trusted friends feature, the company also presented other concepts that would allow users to take on different personas within the same account. Further details regarding the feature are still unclear.
The social media company is also testing a feature called Communities that creates a dedicated space for groups of people with the same interest. Flock is, however, designed with a user’s real friends in mind, and is similar to Instagram’s Close Friends feature for Stories.