Twitter: Replies Are Now Mentions

Twitter Blog: Replies Are Now Mentions: “We’re updating the Replies feature and referring to it instead as Mentions. In your Twitter sidebar you’ll now see your own @username tab. When you click that tab, you’ll see a list of all tweets referencing your account with the @username convention anywhere in the tweet—instead of only at the beginning which is how it used to work. So for me it would be all mentions of @biz. For developers, this update will also be included in the APIs.”

So why is this great news? It’s news foremost because it removes the need for a client application or website to find those hidden @ mentions. This feature alone will greatly increase my enjoyment and usefulness of Twitter.

So why now?

So, we started linking the @username references and collecting any tweets that began with @username on one page to make them easier to track.

However, folks started getting more inventive as they often do. Now people include @username mentions in the middle of tweets as a way to simply reference another account. For example: I’m flying @jetblue to Boston. Also, folks reference multiple accounts in a single tweet like this: I’m flying @jetblue to Boston with @ev @crystal and @goldman.

Well, that’s sums it up for me anyway. I was quick to pick up using the @ to reply, and likewise immediately adapted to using it internal to the 140 characters. It was probably the #1 feature request in the clients.

Will this kill client use for some? Sure it will. Opening the API though will likely remove a large amount of overhead from client applications. Resources previously spent tracking those embedded mentions.

Screenshot from the blog post: