Friends, Followers, and Notifications
Lots of folks have noted that there's too much overlap and confusion between "friend" and "follow." They both mean "I want this person's updates" so why do we need them both? Good point, it turns out we don't. As Twitter has evolved, these two concepts have emerged in parallel and clouded things up. So, in the spirit of simplification, we've made a change.
After careful consideration and user testing, we are no longer going to define people as your "friends." The functionality of adding people remains, but the interaction is focused on the term "follow" instead. We've also added a "notifications" toggle which allows you to turn on updates via SMS or IM on a person-by-person basis.
The new button for these features is prominently placed so it's possible you'll notice more folks following your updates. If you'd rather not be notified when you attract a new follower, you can adjust your account settings. Please try out the new functionality! Hopefully, you'll find it easier and more intuitive.
After careful consideration and user testing, we are no longer going to define people as your "friends." The functionality of adding people remains, but the interaction is focused on the term "follow" instead. We've also added a "notifications" toggle which allows you to turn on updates via SMS or IM on a person-by-person basis.The new button for these features is prominently placed so it's possible you'll notice more folks following your updates. If you'd rather not be notified when you attract a new follower, you can adjust your account settings. Please try out the new functionality! Hopefully, you'll find it easier and more intuitive.
118 Comments:
Hallelujah! Thanks, Twitter Folk!
damn, that was one thing i really liked about twitter: the ability to 'friend' someone (i.e., let them view your posts if they are friends-only) vs. 'following' them (i.e., wanting to view their updates). i guess i am a lone dissenting voice here.
Good work - me likes!
And here I thought I was just confused...
Way to go Flickr!
I heart you.
:)
Yay! Much betterer! MUCH! Thanks, Twitter Gods!
@jo: We've not taken away the ability to have your account be protected. You can still say "I wanna approve who gets to see my posts."
It's just that instead of approving 'friends' you approve 'followers.'
I hate it when people just add me to their lists and I don't even know them. I joined Twitter so me and a couple of my friends could see what we were each up to from time to time without having to go anc check in if we're busy.
I only have 5 friends, but until I went and blocked them all, I had over 12 followers. How am I supposed to know which is why now?
Great!
Makes phone notification manageable.
Still like the "Friends" term.
i'm one happy, happy man.
Great, this will make it much easier!
I just realized tonight you had changed things and I was so very happy with some changes. I find specially useful the fact that I can now see on my list of followers who I an NOT following with a simple glance. You have yet to add many more necessary things but you are definitely getting there, keep up the good work. And for God's sake don't let your servers fall down so many times, it gets us all really frantic :-)
Thanks!
I initially signed up for Twitter out of curiosity and it's been the best thing for finding new links and technologies that I might have been 'late to the party' for, otherwise. I think some of the brightest minds are here. Keep up the good work, and I love your changes.
Jody Gnant said...
And here I thought I was just confused...
Way to go Flickr!
Er...confused? Surely some mistake!
Saw this at the office the other day - good work guys!
A thousand times, thank you. This was the BIG design flaw in the whole shebang. I'm *so* glad it's fixed now.
Umm I think I am kind of confused...maybe I just need to play with it some more...
Changes are indeed Twitterific.
Sanity has prevailed at Twitter HQ. How long before Twitter can do my taxes, though?
Twitter is the only social networking web app that understands that just because I'm sharing information with someone, they aren't necessarily a 'Friend'. Kudos on the changes.
Kinda liked the friend feature I must admit
Sweet ass sweet. This will be tres helpful.
This is excellent news. I already love the new interface. Well done.
So with this update, have the "missing" tweet issues been resolved as well? I've been waiting for a response on this support request for nearly a week now and one from March that has still been left unanswered.
thank you for this. :)
thanks. i am confused enough on my own. now that you guys are clearer on the this, i can be too
Very cool -- ask and you shall receive....
Desperately need to be able to comment on Tweets guys. Threaded comments in reply to a give Tweet...that would be huge.
That would take Twitter to an entirely new level...
@anonymous
If you're only want people you know following you is to set your account to protected (under settings). Then you don't have to worry about blocking anyone.
Good stuff. It was much too confusing, this is a good user interface improvement, there are more needed though. - kamilah
Makes a hell of a lot of sense. Thanks for clearing it up.
But does this mean I have to go out and get myself some new friends?
Huge leap forward guys. Well done. One of the biggest issues I had trying to get friends onto Twitter was explaining how it works. You simplified it enough I won't need to do that anymore.
Simplifying is one of the hardest things to do in design. It always seems obvious once you nail it, but is elusive until you do.
I wanted to have Twitter friends. I am not happy. Put them back. Prokofy
Dear Twitter:
I very much like the idea of followers and followed, and all would be perfect if I could only follow new people.
0. Login
1. Click "Followers"
2. Scroll to a Follower I am not following
3. Click "Follow"
4. Click "Home" link at the top
Expected:
- Person I clicked on would be followed
- Total number of people I follow would increment
Actual:
- Not following anyone new
- Total count is not incremented
Notes:
- Logging out, clearing cookies, logging back in does not help
- Observed with FF 2.0.0.5
- Also tried clicking the link to a Follower's home page, and clicking "Follow" at the top of the page, but I saw the same (non-)results
I'm still confused on Follow & Friend. It seems Follow is less like STALKING, like a negative thing. Perhaps you want to change this. Maybe this is what makes Twitter unique. Either way, great product guys.
How the heck do you make money with twitter?
Nathan
InSupport.com
Great, now it's clear
thx
;)
I love love love these simplification steps you're taking. I logged in to turn them off, although now I understand why it seems I've been getting double notifications or something. Thanks Twit.
How about calling 'Direct Messages' just 'Messages'?
That's not good for me. Indeed, this was the thing I liked the most about twitter. I think it is a mistake to join friend and followed. I have many friends but don't wanna neccesaryly to follow all of them, that's insane!
PLEASE, come back to the dintinction!
Rosetta,
The change is mostly in nomenclature. The term 'friend' has been replaced with 'follow.' You can set whether you want to receive updates to your mobile device or IM via the settings that drop down when you click on the 'Following' button under the user's name.
Trust me, you are not going to be overwhelmed with messages! In fact, we are making great steps towards allowing the process of organizing who's updates get pushed to your mobile/IM devices much simpler! Great stuff coming!
Whoo. That's great change. I love that.
less is more. more is more, too. the tricky part is finding the right balance. you nailed it.
:-/ I liked the separation between Friends (who I really like) and followers (who like me). Anyway thanks for always improving!w
Thank you all for the kind words! This is something we've been refining for a very long time, in the attempt to allow people to view the intricacies of the lives of those they care about in the most elegant way possible. We're very excited about not only this, but other top-secret yet-to-be-released features as well.
For those who are confused about the change, please do not hesitate to email us!
Why do I still see references to the "friend" term thoughout the user preferences screen? For example, the "Settings -> Account" and "Settings -> Notifications" screen?
Hello there,
how about the following:
>> a link pointing to a list of the people who recently visited my page
>> a link pointing to a list of the latest members
Would be highly appreciated. :-)
Cheers
champagner
Good move !
I thought I was the only one that didn't get it. Thanks for the change!
Nice. I appreciate it.
Wording on my account settings page still uses friend terminology: "Only let people whom I accept as friends read my updates."
So I personally do not like the follow button, I rather have the "add" button back. My follow button does not work, so when i click the follow button it doesnt add them to my following list, or put their pictures down, on my friend list! so personly i think that you guyz should get the "add" button back! thanks
yeah me too..i just like the public timeline anyway..what a concept!
Although the word "Friends" seemed a bit mis-applied, it took on a Twitter-specific meaning that made sense. "Following" and "Followers" muddies the water. What am I supposed to call those icons on my sidebar - my "Followings"? How about "subscriptions" and "subscribers"? "Others" also takes on a Twitter-specific meaning, but I liked "Friends" better - Twitter seems a little colder and too businesslike without it. How about calling mutual followers "Friends"?
Functionally, Yeah!
I miss the term "friends" though.
No joke: check out what i wrote YESTERDAY on the use of the word Friend on http://china-business-how-to.blogspot.com/ (!)
I join the chorus of those who would prefer to have friends and ditch the followers.
@katie, @macduff: Sorry you've run into problems with the new Follow button not actually following people. Can you include a comment with your twitter username or drop us a note (if you haven't already) so we can figure out the particular problem in both your cases?
@anonymous: Thanks for the note about 'friend' still appearing confusingly in those two settings pages. We tried to be pretty thorough in cleaning up the names of things, but obviously missed a few spots. We'll get those sorted right away. (Again, the functionality will be the same, just the label will change).
the default notification state should be OFF. or you should have a way to easily turn ALL off/on.
I was also having problems following someone. Perhaps it is a Firefox problem. I suspected it to be a Javascript problem, however, Javascript was turned on. I then tried to follow someone under the Internet Explorer browser and it worked fine. Firefox version was 1.5.0.12.
>Jason Goldman said...
>@jo: We've not taken away the ability to have your account be protected. You can still say "I wanna approve who gets to see my posts."
>It's just that instead of approving 'friends' you approve 'followers.'"
that's not what i mean. i'm saying that i wish the distinction between "friends" and "followers/followees" still existed. i may want to add someone as a friend (i.e., so they can see MY updates) but NOT follow them.
err, let me clarify. i may want to friend+follow certain people but ONLY friend others without having to see their updates. (for example, when people were sending 29347298923874 sxsw updates daily.)
Jo,
You can still do this. Just turn "notifications" off for those users.
This is a mix of feelings. so Twitter maybe can do some improvements in the future based in the customer feedback using betas and not based only in his test team.
it's clear :
a user in our twitter list can be one of the 3 options:
Friend 1: where i want to receive his(her)twits
Friend 2: where i don't want to receive his(her) twits
Follower 3: Follows
The first group should be in the top of our thumbnails contacts with a "green" dot. This is because we want visualize who of our friends is receiving our posts.
The second group should be in the 2nd place of our thumbnails contacts with a "red" dot. It means our friend users who is not receiving our twitts
The third block should be rest it means people we follow and are not friend of us
If we want to be more specific.. we can divide this followers block in 3 groups.
1) I follow you, you follow me.=)
2) I follow you, you are not following me.=/
3) You follow me only =S
4) You follow me and i blocked you =X
hehe but this shoould be a improvement for the next release twitter 2.0 in 2008. ;)
Since the change, there are members for whom I receive IM notifications, but are not listed as one I am following. These were those I followed but not 'friended', those of whom I had no idea I still followed unless I kept-up with the IM thread. That was the one thing lacking in the friend/follow relationship; I could not see whom I just follow; thought I can see who just follows me. If you were to properly make 'friends' 'followers', you should have included existing followers.
Also, there should be two timelines, a personal one and a public one, with the public one having only those who mutually follow.
@Britt Selvitelle
Ok, I understand now there is no difference at all. Thanks for the clarification!
Doesn't seem to work for me at all. I'm trying to stop following someone, I'll click remove but it doesn't do anything. I'll refresh their page and I'm once agian a follower.
@arno: If anyone's seeing this sort of problem, please leave your twitter username in the comments so that we can try and replicate the problem. Thanks!
@Britt Selvitelle
ooh, got it now, thanks!
Cool a twitter blog! I like that. But you mean IM notification actually works? Since when...
I also have a BIG problem with receiving multiple notifications on my cell. Sometimes the same message two or three times, spread over several hours.
i dont like new fallow add interface i think not visualfix in twitter
So, if I've blocked someone, and protected my updates, why are the blocked people still listed as followers? pianogirl95.
@laura: thanks for the bug report - we'll get that fixed up. I believe it's an error in what's displayed on the page rather than in the blocking itself.
Personally, I like "following" much better than "friends" because not everyone I follow is necessarily a friend. It just may be a person of interest. I really hate places that have "friends" lists, because for me, calling someone a friend isn't taken lightly. Anyhow...I think "following" and "followers" makes perfect sense...you have those you follow and those who follow you. I do like it that now on your "followers" page you can easily choose to follow them or block them. Twitter is developing nicely.
I can change the notification options for some people, but not for others. I've tried on the following page and individual profile pages. Once I refresh everything goes back to how it was.
Seems this only happens for people that have been on my Twitter for a while, not people I've added recently.
Well, I found it not THAT complicated. Also the friends feature has DEFINITELY been nice.
I would have changed it to post for
a) friends only
b) general public
Now as its ALL public per default ... well.
Hmm, maybe I am just too stupid, but all on all Followers if I check the "Notifications" to "On" it doesnt store my setting :(
Reloading the page ends up with having all again with "Off".
The new Follow button is not working with Firefox on Mac OSX, but I was able to get it working with Flock.
great! makes sense, the evolution should co\ntinue
not working for me
me too..about "jo said.."
dn't really find it confusing before, so I guess I can't find it less confusing now. As long as functionality hasn't changed for those of us who don't twitter to strangers :)
This post has been removed by the author.
Are the SMS keywords going to change too?
The follow buttons aren't taking effect in Firefox 1.5 but work fine in 2.0 and other browsers that I've tried. I do have javascript and cookies enabled. wizard04
Is there any way to default all phone notifications to off and then add them as needed? That would be a helpful feature.
Thank you all again. We are looking into Javascript inconsistencies and will have fixes out as soon as possible.
@wizard04, We'll be clarifying the SMS keywords to align with the Web, IM, and any other devices. We'll release new tutorials soon, but things should work as-is right now.
Kami, All new followers default to off. There is currently no way to turn notifications off permanently for all people you follow. I've done it one at a time in order to make my list manageable. We are absolutely working on ways to make these types of tasks easy to manage though. More to come!
If I turn notifications to off, does that *only* mean I don't get SMSes, or does it also mean I won't get their tweets sent to IM?
I have a whole bunch of people who I'm perfectly happy to hear from via IM/the web, but don't want to be SMSed to me - I want to reserve that for real friends only.
Genau das habe ich vermisst. Danke, ihr Leute von twitter!
Friends or Follow. It's good that Twitter have made things simpler by removing a confusing (for some,) term.
However, the alternative approach could have been to make it so that you can follow anyone, but a friend is someone who mutually follows you in return?
This is a great idea. I like following some people but don't always want their updates via SMS...well done to the Twitter team! =D
Soupy
Thank you so much,this is great!!!!
HELP! I can't turn SMS notifications on for a friend I'm following. I click the radio button to turn them on, but nothing happens.
@w: Please make sure you have either IM or SMS delivery enabled (on twitter.com/devices). If you don't have either IM or SMS, you will be unable to interact with the On/Off buttons.
If you are still seeing this error after verifying your devices, please let us know the browser and Twitter username you are using.
The behaviour I'm seeing is that, when I'm on IM, I still don't see the messages from the people I said I don't want to get SMSes for.
Is this expected behaviour, or should there be a way I can get their tweets via IM but not SMS?htt
Your notification mails still read:
'You may add ... back by clicking on the "add" link.'
I like...although truth be told, it makes me slightly uneasy that the last 10 twitter emails I've gotten tell me someone I don't know is "following" me. Maybe if they were just called my fans? (that seems more benign :-) One could break it down thusly.
-- People who I follow and who follow me are my "friends"
-- People who follow me but who I don't follow are my "fans" and vice versa...I can be called a fan of someone I follow but who doesn't follow me.
Notification toggles still don't work on a Mac. Neither with Safari (current release) nor with Camino or Firefox 2.0.0.5.
Also, it seems if i request to follow someone who's updates are protected, after he authorized me, he will also follow me - and if he'd remove me, i can't follow him anymore. That is bad. If i want to follow someone with protected updates, it doesn't necessarily mean he wants to follow me too.
Third and last, lets say i follow 3 accounts, my twitter homepage will say (on the right):
Following: 3
If one of the accounts i am following is being deleted, this counter is not updated and will still say "Following: 3" allthough, if i click the "Following" link, i will only see 2 accounts.
Hi,
I'm also currently unable to turn notifications ON. I select ON, but it doesn't stick after refreshing the page. However, I am able to switch from ON to OFF.
Is this a bug? Or am I doing something wrong?
I'm using IE on a PC.
so how do you turn on/off updates for all twitterers you are following all at once?
I got the same problem as Margaret in a previous comment.
I can't change the Notifications to On when I am starting to follow someone.
Why do some names have a RED lock beside them? What does it mean? How did it get there?
@jill the lock means that person has chosen to protect their updates. You can see them because they have granted you access, but not everyone can.
I have the same problem as another user described:
"Doesn't seem to work for me at all. I'm trying to stop following someone, I'll click remove but it doesn't do anything. I'll refresh their page and I'm once agian a follower."
username: robcallahan
My problem is that I've stopped following people and yet their tweets still show up on my page. IT IS SO ANNOYING!
I also have tried to stop following someone and even though it says I've stopped, they STILL show up in my friend's list.
I feel like I'm trapped in an unhealthy relationship and I can't get out!! SOMEONE SAVE ME!!!!!
Some fixes were put in to take care of the cases when you couldn't follow/remove someone. Let us know if this continues!
Sadly, it continues.
Just tried to turn notifications ON on people I'm following and it's still not working. I also tried removing them from the list of people I'm following and then added them and THEN tried to turn notifications ON. I'm afraid it's still not working. HELP!!!!
Britt Selvitelle said...
For those who are confused about the change, please do not hesitate to email us!
Funny, the several times I have emailed Twitter support with questions, I have never heard back. Anyway, I don't think this notifications thing works right. Not only is there no "accept" or "okay" or what have you button, but when I do manage to change a selection (seems random when it does finally stick) the one above or below it gets changed, too. And then I have to mess and mess to try to change them back. A bit annoying!
By the way, I do have IM turned on. I'm using IE on a PC and my username is Craige. Thanks!
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