Twitter today announced that it is testing a new feature called Safety Mode, which is designed to cut down on harassment and unwelcome interactions on the social network.
Users who often get unwanted, spammy, or abusive replies to their tweets can turn on Safety Mode, which will autoblock accounts that use harmful language like insults, or send repetitive, uninvited replies and mentions.
Twitter says that Safety Mode assesses the likelihood of a negative engagement by considering the Tweet's content and the relationship between the Tweet author and replier. People blocked by Safety Mode will be unable to follow your account, see your Tweets, or send Direct Messages.
With Safety Mode, the autoblock stays on for a minimum of seven days, and autoblocked accounts are listed in the Safety Mode interface. Accounts that a person follows will not be autoblocked.
To develop Safety Mode, Twitter consulted trusted partners with expertise in online safety, mental health, and human rights.
We want you to enjoy healthy conversations, so this test is one way we're limiting overwhelming and unwelcome interactions that can interrupt those conversations. Our goal is to better protect the individual on the receiving end of Tweets by reducing the prevalence and visibility of harmful remarks.
Twitter is testing Safety Mode with a small group of people at the current time and will expand the testing group as feedback is received. During the beta testing period, Twitter says it will incorporate improvements and adjustments before releasing the feature for all users.
Thursday February 20, 2025 5:06 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Now that Apple has announced its new more affordable iPhone 16e, our thoughts turn to what else we are expecting from the company this spring.
There are three product categories that we are definitely expecting to get upgraded before spring has ended. Keep reading to learn what they are. If we're lucky, Apple might make a surprise announcement about a completely new product category.
M4...
Wednesday February 19, 2025 8:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today introduced the iPhone 16e, its newest entry-level smartphone. The device succeeds the third-generation iPhone SE, which has now been discontinued.
The iPhone 16e features a larger 6.1-inch OLED display, up from a 4.7-inch LCD on the iPhone SE. The display has a notch for Face ID, and this means that Apple no longer sells any iPhones with a Touch ID fingerprint button, marking the ...
Friday February 21, 2025 1:08 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple finally released the first beta of iOS 18.4 to developers for testing purposes, and while the beta is lacking some of the Apple Intelligence features we were hoping for, there are some notable new additions.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Priority Notifications - Apple Intelligence
There is a new Priority Notifications feature that can show you your most...
Friday February 21, 2025 11:06 am PST by Juli Clover
In iOS 18.4, there's a new Ambient Music option that can be added to Control Center. There are four different sound categories, including Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing.
Each category can be added to Control Center separately, and tapping one plays a random selection of sounds or music from that particular category.
You can't choose what's playing from Control Center, but if...
Tuesday February 18, 2025 12:02 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Over the years, Apple has switched from an aluminum frame to a stainless steel frame to a titanium frame for its highest-end iPhones. And now, it has been rumored that Apple will go back to using aluminum for three out of four iPhone 17 models.
In an investor note with research firm GF Securities, obtained by MacRumors this week, Apple supply chain analyst Jeff Pu said the iPhone 17, iPhone...
Friday February 21, 2025 8:01 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple has confirmed that its custom-designed C1 modem in the iPhone 16e has nothing to do with the device's lack of MagSafe support, according to Macworld.
Following the launch of the iPhone 16e, there was some speculation online about how MagSafe magnets might have interfered with the C1 modem's cellular connectivity performance, and this was considered to be a potential reason for the...
Wednesday February 19, 2025 11:38 am PST by Juli Clover
Following the launch of the iPhone 16e, Apple updated its iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia pages to give a narrower timeline on when the next updates are set to launch.
All three pages now state that new Apple Intelligence features and languages will launch in early April, an update from the more broader April timeframe that Apple provided before. The next major point updates will be iOS ...
Thursday February 20, 2025 8:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Oppo has launched the Find N5, the world's thinnest foldable phone yet. When closed, the book-style foldable measures 8.93mm. That's less than a millimeter thicker than an iPhone 16 Pro, and thinner than the Honor Magic V3, which was the previous record holder.
The device is barely thicker than its USB-C port. Indeed, Oppo has suggested that the obstacle to making it any thinner is now "the...
Great— so now everybody on Twitter will be grouped into their own silos and echo chambers even more than they already are. Nobody will change anybody’s opinion since you’re unlikely to hear dissenting voices and the divide between people will become even greater.
If you ask a question, or people express an opinion on something you said, on social media, it’s the same as going into the crappiest city you can find, finding the crappiest bar in that city, and finding the biggest moron in that bar, and then listening to what they say. Social Media is the worst thing to happen to humankind, ever.
Great— so now everybody on Twitter will be grouped into their own silos and echo chambers even more than they already are. Nobody will change anybody’s opinion since you’re unlikely to hear dissenting voices and the divided between people will become even greater.
Thanks, Jack!
There is a minority group who's mind cannot be changed. They call everyone else sheep. Without realizing they are sheep. Just in a different flock.
Reminds me of a quote I once heard from a radio personality. "Just because your words now travel around the world, that doesn't mean they are any more important than when they could only reach to the other end of the bar."
