Twitter Close Friends Feature in Beta Now Called 'Flock' With 150-Person Limit

[MacRumors]

Twitter continues to work on a new feature that lets users post certain tweets to a limited number of close friends in a parallel timeline on the social media platform.

Previously floated in July 2021 as "Trusted Friends," the feature is now called "Flock," and will allow users to limit their audience for specific content to no more than 150 people, according to screens uncovered by mobile developer Alessandro Paluzzi.

When a tweet is sent to your Flock, only people in the Flock can view and reply to it, and a label may appear beneath that tweet that reads: "You can see this Tweet because the author has added you to their Flock." However, if you decide you don't want someone in your Flock anymore, you can boot them out of it and they won't get a notification.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1484377272731590656

Before someone sends a tweet, Twitter will show an option to select its intended audience, allowing users to post it to all of Twitter or only to those in their Flock. In that sense it has similarities with Communities, a feature Twitter launched last year that lets people share discussions on a specific topic.

Flock is still in beta, so it's not clear when the feature will go live for all users, but Twitter has been working on it since at least July of last year. Flock shouldn't be confused with "Fleets," the ephemeral tweet option that was designed to compete with Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, Snapchat, and more. Fleets never caught on with Twitter users and the company canned the feature in August, less than a year after the feature launched.

Article Link: Twitter Close Friends Feature in Beta Now Called 'Flock' With 150-Person Limit

 

[AmazeSE]

Flock makes sense. Has a similar meaning like sheep 😂

 

[BootsWalking]

This feature sounds familiar. I think it's called a "text message".

 

[iZac]

This actually makes a lot of sense to stop people publicly broadcasting their every waking thought to the whole world.

They could even add an "are you sure?" confirmation button to regular global tweets, to add a little bit more friction for potential mistakes.

 

[orbital~debris]

That's some good brand-strengthening there. It's a balance though – overdoing the bird-based terminology.

 

[metapunk2077fail]

It's insulting enough to be called a follower. To be called a flock is like being slapped in the face and told to make sheep sounds.

 

[metapunk2077fail]

This actually makes a lot of sense to stop people publicly broadcasting their every waking thought to the whole world.

They could even add an "are you sure?" confirmation button to regular global tweets, to add a little bit more friction for potential mistakes.

What it will be used for is co-ordinated attacks or spam. A 'flock' privately organises something to shill or someone to attack and then they go at it. What Twitter is doing here is absorbing the organisation that occurs off their platform so that people do it on their platform and stay in the eco-system.

 

[MBAir2010]

good luck with the numbs, twits!
because the twitter only has 130 supposed members now,
from what i hear about people deleting their accounts in 2020.

hopefully this feature will purge those random death threateners
where they can't read one's messages.

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

I think to avoid the sheep-related jokes they should have used another bird-related group word. How about “murder”?
That’s crows, sure, but at least there’s no sheep association, right? ?

 

[cyanite]

This feature sounds familiar. I think it's called a "text message".

I don't see the similarity. Not anymore than Twitter is already similar to text messages.

 

[azentropy]

Of course this will lead to a "If you make a $$$$$$ contribution you can become a member of my flock!"

 

[jdclifford]

This actually makes a lot of sense to stop people publicly broadcasting their every waking thought to the whole world.

They could even add an "are you sure?" confirmation button to regular global tweets, to add a little bit more friction for potential mistakes.

Why would anyone want to "publicly broadcast their every waking thought" to ANYBODY? Ever heard of TMI? I certainly don't want to be on the other end of that. And you can jest text - no need at all for Twitter.

 

[Populus]

Perfect, this was the feature Twitter was missing. Now, it will be an even more closed echo-chamber.

 

[contacos]

So dumb, just text each other or post a story on the gram? hashtag old

 

[gnipgnop]

It took them 15 years to come up with this feature.

 

[GMShadow]

Flock makes sense. Has a similar meaning like sheep ?

It was also shorter than sycophants.

 

[antiprotest]

Flock Twitter.

 

[amartinez1660]

This could be a nice experiment, being the data collectors these companies are in general against all the laws.

The human brain being left to its own devices can only process social structures of up to 120 ~ 150 individuals (which is huge). Tribes of yesteryears would cap at those, companies could naturally grow up to that before a major company structures (multiple C management, HRs, etc) are a must, if someone tries to grow their own FB (or similar) on their own would probably cap close to that too.

Facebook, IG, Tweets, Corporate conglomerates of 10K, 100K people. 1M - 10M followers, 1Billion video/profile/picture views are an aberration made possible by technology.

As much as I dislike certain social media in general I must say that this Flock thing is quite interesting.

 

[applicious84]

I feel like there's an Apple flock on here sometimes

 

[jonblatho]

Nice feature for those of us who maintain multiple accounts. I have a main account for acquaintances that’s available to the public and a secondary, protected account for closer friends.

 

[jonblatho]

Of course this will lead to a "If you make a $$$$$$ contribution you can become a member of my flock!"

This already exists with “Super Follows.”

 

[morphineseason]

This actually makes a lot of sense to stop people publicly broadcasting their every waking thought to the whole world.

They could even add an "are you sure?" confirmation button to regular global tweets, to add a little bit more friction for potential mistakes.

"We see you've selected an anime profile picture. Would you like us to ban you now or later?"

 

[sw1tcher]

This actually makes a lot of sense to stop people publicly broadcasting their every waking thought to the whole world.

Makes a lot of sense until you realize that someone can take a screenshot of tweet and tweet it to the whole world to see ?

 

[sw1tcher]

So dumb, just text each other or post a story on the gram? hashtag old

How is posting "a story on the gram" any less dumb?

 

[Appleman3546]

It actually looks like it will be called Twitter Flock, as the word flock is fairly heavily trademarked already for similar uses, but Twitter Flock might be enough to bypass it