Twitter has moved from suggesting accounts for users to follow to run a test suggesting accounts users should unfollow, the company confirmed in a statement to TheWrap on Thursday.
The company said the test has concluded, and aimed to point out account users don’t interact with often.
“We know that people want a relevant Twitter timeline. One way to do this is by unfollowing people they don’t engage with regularly,” said a Twitter spokesperson in a statement. “We ran an incredibly limited test to surface accounts that people were not engaging with to check if they’d like to unfollow them.”
Twitter didn’t share whether the test will be adopted or revisited at a later date. Next Web’s Matt Navarra first spotted and shared screenshots of the unfollow function on Wednesday.
Twitter is now suggesting accounts to UNFOLLOW!
h/t @medavep who got told to unfollow me! pic.twitter.com/PNaY7aQ9i0
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) August 29, 2018
The test could be looked at as another way Twitter is looking to improve the “health of public conversation” on its platform. The San Francisco-based company has tweaked several features in the last year, including pushing mean tweets to the bottom of reply threads, as it is looking to satiate its declining user base. The unfollow list could be a high-risk, high-reward feature if added across the board, however, as the company has recently fought claims that it shadow bans prominent conservatives — which the company has declined doing.