Twitter Kills ‘@’ In New iOS Update, Then Brings It Back
Twitter rolled out an update to its iOS app Thursday night killing its famous "@" symbol. Many iOS users were left dazed and confused when they tried to use it to reply to tweets. The update basically removed the "@" symbol’s functionality and also removed the "@replies" to a tweet from the character count. It was, however, rolled back after users vented their fury on Twitter.
fyi when you update your twitter app you'll find that @ replies have been brutally murdered. RIP pour some out https://t.co/YP1XofVkGb
— Saved You A Click (@SavedYouAClick) December 9, 2016
Some users even poked fun at the update.
got mad at the twitter update but then i realized they might just be trying to confuse trump and i chilled
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) December 9, 2016
But some users took advantage of the new update and since @ didn’t figure in the character count they tagged everyone they could in tweets.
@mat @Nicole @snackfight I love new mega canoe twitter. So excited to ruin the mentions of hundreds of people.
— Roberto Baldwin (@strngwys) December 8, 2016
At 8:41 a.m. EST Friday, the company stated in an official tweet that the update “accidentally” went out and thanked users for the feedback.
Today, an experiment around replies accidentally went out to everyone on iOS briefly. Upside, we got helpful feedback - we’re listening!
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 9, 2016
At 9:08 a.m. EST Friday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey apologized for the confusion.
Always working to simplify & make Twitter better for everyone. Appreciate all the feedback (and apologies for the confusion). Learning fast. https://t.co/TeIsmNubgd
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2016
However, this is not the first time that the social networking site has experimented with such an update. The company had rolled out a similar change on its Android app in September, when it loosened the 140-character limit per tweet.
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