A while back I wrote a post explaining how to “Unfriend” someone on Facebook without really unfriending him/her.
Well, several people read that post and then asked me if it’s possible to do the same thing on Twitter. The answer is yes. All you have to do is “Mute” them.
Before I explain how to mute someone that you follow on Twitter, perhaps I should explain what muting actually does and doesn’t do. That way you can decide whether you would rather mute a person who posts annoying tweets or just go ahead and unfollow him/her (or even go nuclear and block them altogether).
This is what happens after you have muted someone that you are following on Twitter:
1 – That person’s future tweets will no longer show up in your Twitter Timeline (much like when a friend is “hidden” on Facebook).
2 – You will no longer receive push or SMS notifications from someone you have muted.
These things WILL NOT happen after you mute someone:
1 – Muting someone WILL NOT cause you to unfollow him/her.
2 – Your Notifications tab WILL NOT stop displaying @ replies and mentions by the muted account.
3 – Muting someone WILL NOT prevent them from sending you private messages.
4 – Muting someone WILL NOT remove their existing tweets from your Timeline. It will only prevent their future tweets from being posted there.
5 – A muted person WILL NOT know that they have been muted.
Now that you know exactly how muting someone affects how they can interact with your account, you can decide whether muting them is the best course of action for you to take.
Follow the steps listed below if you wish to mute someone on Twitter. You can mute someone in one of two ways in the desktop version:
To mute someone from their profile page…
1 – Visit the Profile page of the person you want to mute.
2 – Click the three dots that are located right beside the “Following” button.
3 – Select Mute from the drop-down menu.
To mute someone from one of their tweets…
1 – Click the three dots located on the right side the tweet.
2 – Select Mute from the drop-down menu.
If you use the Twitter mobile app, either tap the Following button on their profile page and tap Mute… or tap the three dots beside one their tweets and tap Mute….
That’s all there is to it. You have just “Unfollowed” someone on Twitter without really unfollowing them (and without them knowing about it).