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Niall Carson/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Twitter rolls out mute button so you can silence those who annoy you

A lifesaver for those who don’t want to block or unfollow someone.

THOSE WHO FIND certain Twitter users overbearing or annoying will now be able to filter them out completely through a new feature.

Unveiled by Twitter today for iOS, Android and mobile web, the mute button is designed for those who find certain users annoying or overbearing but don’t want to unfollow or block them.

Muting them means that person’s tweets and retweets will no longer be visible on your timeline. The muted user won’t know you’ve muted them and you have the option to reverse your action at any time, and they can still favourite, reply and retweet your tweets.

Muting a user on Twitter means their tweets and retweets will no longer be visible in your home timeline, and you will no longer receive push or SMS notifications from that user. The muted user will still be able to fave, reply to, and retweet your tweets; you just won’t see any of that activity in your timeline. The muted user will not know that you’ve muted them, and of course you can unmute at any time.

Back in December, Twitter briefly changed the function of the block button, allowing users who were blocked to follow the person as well as see and interact with their tweets. However, the changes only lasted a few hours after many users complained about the change, causing Twitter to revert back to the old policy.

The mute button gives users the best of both worlds allowing people to use the block button if all else fails. The feature will be rolled out to all users over the coming weeks.

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