About conversations on Twitter
Conversations are happening all the time on Twitter—and it all starts with just one reply to a Tweet.
Popular conversations are easy to find and join. We show you the most interesting content first, and when you join in, you will have all 140 characters to craft your reply with. Below we’ve outlined some basics about conversations on Twitter, and how best to participate in them.
Replies in conversations
Who am I replying to?
Notifications for conversations
Who is a part of the conversation?
Conversation ranking
Direct reply count
Replies in conversations
A reply is a response to another Tweet, and is one of the easiest ways to join in a conversation as it’s happening on Twitter.
When you reply to a Tweet, @usernames will not automatically be added to the beginning of the reply, giving you all 140 characters to use in your response. You can see the full list of participant usernames in the conversation by clicking or tapping the prompt above the Tweet.
How to post a reply:
- Find the Tweet you want to reply to.
- Click the reply icon
Note: A composer screen will pop up, where you will see the name of the person(s) you are directly replying to. - Type in your message and click or tap Reply to post it.
Who am I replying to?
From the compose screen, you can see the people in the conversation you will reply to. Click or tap Replying to… to bring up an editing screen with a list of everyone who is a part of the conversation:
Reply editing screen basics:
- Up to 50 people who are in the conversation will be displayed.
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Blocked accounts: Accounts you have blocked will be visible to you in the recipient list, and will indicate that you have blocked them. From the editing screen, you can choose to remove the blocked account from the conversation by clicking or tapping on the checkmark icon
Blocked accounts will not know you have removed them from the conversation and that you won’t see their replies.
Note: If an account you have blocked visits your profile, they will see a message alerting them of the block. -
Removing people: The people listed on the editing screen can be removed (except for the author of the original Tweet to whom you are directly replying). To remove people from the conversation in the editing screen, simply click or tap on the checkmark icon to deselect participants. Once someone is unselected, the checkmark icon will be unchecked.
- Adding people: To add additional people to a conversation, swipe down to close the editing screen, and then simply type their @username into your Tweet. A manually-typed username in the text box will count towards your 140 character limit.
Read our About replies and mentions and Types of Tweets and where they appear articles for more information.
Notifications for conversations
When you receive a notification for a conversation, it will indicate whether it is a reply or a mention:
- If your @username appears within the body of a Tweet, you will receive a mention notification.
- When someone replies to you, you will receive a reply notification.
- When you receive a notification, click or tap on it to view the conversation and who else is participating in it.
Who is a part of the conversation?
You can also view participants of a conversation from Tweets you see in your Home timeline, profile page, notifications, or from a Tweet detail. To view participants’ names, bio, and @usernames:
- Click or tap Replying to...
- From here you can see everyone who is included in this reply. You can also follow or unfollow people in this list.
Conversation ranking
You may notice that some replies in a conversation are not shown in chronological order. Replies are grouped by sub-conversations because we strive to show you the best content first, and what we think you’d be most interested in. For example, when ranking a reply higher, we consider factors such as if the original Tweet author has replied, or if a reply is from someone you follow.
Direct reply count
Just like you can see the total number of likes and Retweets for any Tweet, you can also see how many people are participating in the conversation by the reply count. You’ll see a number next to the reply icon indicating how many direct replies the original Tweet has received. This number is not the total number of replies in the entire conversation.
