Twitter can be fun and useful, but unwanted content cluttering your feed can quickly ruin your experience. Thankfully, Twitter’s “mute” feature allows you to remove certain words, phrases, hashtags, and accounts from view – cleaning up your Twitter feed instantly.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about muting content on Twitter, with simple step-by-step instructions for both web and mobile. Let’s get started!
What Does “Muting Words on Twitter” Mean?
When you “mute words on Twitter”, you’re preventing specific phrases, terms, or hashtags from appearing in your feed. This allows you to:
- Avoid spoilers for TV shows, movies or sports events
- Filter out sensitive topics that may upset or disturb you
- Remove obnoxious trends and meme overload
- Stop seeing excessive posts from friends/brands/celebrities
- Overall, customize your Twitter feed to match your interests
Once muted, you won’t see any Tweets containing the muted terms in your home or notifications timeline. However, muting is not the same as blocking a user, which I’ll explain shortly.
So without further ado, let’s dive into the step-by-step process of muting words across web and mobile Twitter…
How to Mute Words on Twitter‘s Website
Muting via Twitter on your desktop or laptop browser is easy to do. Just follow these three simple steps:
Step 1: Access Twitter’s Content Preferences
First, log into Twitter.com and navigate to your home feed. Click your profile icon in the top right corner, then select Settings and privacy.
This will open your account settings page. Next, click Content preferences from the left sidebar:
Here is where you access Twitter’s various content and privacy controls.
Step 2: Click on the “Muted” tab
Within the Content preferences page, you should see a Safety section followed by other categories like Trends and Personalization. Under Safety, click the Muted tab:
Selecting this tab will open Twitter’s mute/block page.
Step 3: Enter Term to Mute and Save
Under the Muted words section, click the + Add button to specify a new word or phrase to mute:
A popup will appear allowing you to enter the exact term you wish to mute. For example, a sports team name, TV show title, offensive slang etc.
You can also choose to mute that term from your Home timeline, Notifications timeline, or only from accounts you don’t follow. If desired, specify a duration like 24 hours or 30 days.
When finished, click Save and the muted term will instantly be applied. Repeat to mute additional words/phrases as needed!
And that’s all there is to muting keywords on Twitter’s website. Now let’s look at doing the same for mobile…
How to Mute Words on Twitter‘s Mobile App
If accessing Twitter on your iOS or Android phone, you can still easily mute terms with three quick steps:
Step 1: Go to Settings
Open the Twitter app and tap your profile icon (top left). This will reveal the side menu. Next choose Settings and privacy:
Step 2: Go to “Mute and Block”
On the Settings page, select Privacy and Safety. Then on the next screen choose Mute and block:
This section gives you granular control over muting specific users or keywords.
Step 3: Enter Term and Save
Under Muted Words, tap Add to specify a word or phrase to remove from your feed.
Much like the website, you can mute terms from your various timelines and choose a temporary or indefinite duration. When done, click Save.
Repeat Step 3 to build your list of muted terms and optimize your mobile Twitter experience!
Muting vs Blocking on Twitter
While we’ve focused on muting so far, you may wonder how this compares to blocking accounts on Twitter. Here is the key distinction:
| Muting | Blocking |
|---|---|
| Removes tweets containing certain words from your feed | Removes all tweets from a specific Twitter account |
| The muted account does not know you’ve muted them | The blocked account receives notification of being blocked |
| You can mute individual words or phrases | You can only block other Twitter accounts |
| Muting can be temporary or indefinite | Blocking is permanent unless directly reversed |
So in short:
- Use mute to remove specific subjects or terms from view across all Twitter accounts
- Use block when you want to completely avoid seeing tweets from a certain Twitter user
Now that you know the fundamentals of muting on Twitter, let‘s talk about some smart ways to apply it…
Pro Tips for Muting Words on Twitter
Here are some handy tips for making the most of Twitter’s mute function based on your specific interests and priorities:
Avoid Spoilers for TV Shows, Movies or Sports Events
For big entertainment events like the SuperBowl or finale of Stranger Things, you’ll likely see loads of twitter chatter in the moment. Protect yourself by muting relevant keywords, names, teams and hashtags.
For example, muting "Stranger Things season 4" or "#SuperBowl" will keep your timeline 100% spoiler-free!
Silence Sensitive News and Political Topics
Ongoing news events surrounding politics, tragedies, or social issues can create a lot of noise. Mute associated terms like politician names, controversial legislation, specific incidents and related hashtags.
This allows you to avoid overwhelming or upsetting content.
Filter Annoying Internet Slang and Memes
Viral meme phrases like “spill the tea” or “slide into the DMs” might start as fun but eventually get irritating. Mute these eye-roll-inducing terms as needed!
You can also mute overused emojis and annoying stan culture like celebrity or influencer names.
Remove Excessive Brand and Promotional Tweets
Get rid of promotional noise by muting brand names or products you don’t care about. For example, muting “Apple” will hide the constant iPhone and MacBook tweet barrage.
You can also mute pesky phrases like “Black Friday”. This eliminates excessive seasonal sales pitches around the holidays.
Customize Your Experience with Flexible Settings
Remember, muting gives you granular control thanks to temporary durations and ability to target specific timelines/users.
For example, muting "Bachelor Spoilers" for just 1 month means you only avoid reality TV spoilers for the current season. Or try muting a friend’s pet name only from your notifications if they tag you too often.
Get creative in fine-tuning your muted words for the optimal, distraction-free Twitter experience!
A Brief History of Muting on Twitter
Twitter originally lacked native muting capabilities when it first launched in 2006. Users had to either unfollow accounts or use third-party mute apps to filter their feeds.
But by late 2013, Twitter was reporting over 230 million active monthly users. @mentions, retweets and trending topics created more noise than ever.
In September 2014, Twitter finally introduced keyword and phrase muting after years of requests. This allowed silencing content regardless of which account posted it – revolutionizing feed curation.
Additional changes soon followed, like muting images and GIFs plus limiting muted content to specific timelines and users.
Today, muting remains one of Twitter‘s most popular features. Over 500 million tweets are shared daily from Twitter‘s 467 million total accounts. Muting empowers users to curate this content deluge for their unique interests and priorities.
So in that sense, little has changed since 2014!
Frequently Asked Questions
Let’s review some common questions around muting keywords and phrases on Twitter:
How long do muted words remain muted?
When adding a term to mute, you specify either a temporary duration (24 hours, 7 days etc.) or indefinitely until manually unmuted. The default is permanent muting if no duration is selected.
Can someone tell if you’ve muted them?
No. Unlike blocking an account, muting keywords happens secretly without any notification. So feel free to mute terms freely without social consequences.
Where do I access mute settings options?
The mute controls live under Settings > Privacy and Safety > Mute and Block – accessible on both mobile and the Twitter website.
Can I mute hashtag phrases in addition to words?
Yes! Hashtags like #BachelorNation or #AdLife are definitely fair game to mute just like regular keywords. Tailor your experience!
I hope this guide has shown just how easy yet powerful muting on Twitter can be. Now it’s time to clean up your feed and become the master of your Twitter domain!
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