How to limit replies to your tweets
We've all been there. You type, you hit tweet, you instantly regret not closing your replies...
When a truly rofl-worthy (sorry) thought seizes you and you cannot wait to impart that hilarity with the world, it's easy to get carried away without thinking about your reply guys.
As Mashable's Chloe Bryan put it, a reply guy often responds to women's tweets in an overly familiar tone "as if they know the person they're targeting, though they usually don't."
"They also tend to reply to only women; the most prolific reply guys fill the role for dozens of women trying to tweet in peace," adds Bryan.
As a woman with internet access, I rely heavily on Twitter's "who can reply?" settings to ensure my own rabble of reply guys are restrained from doling up unsolicited advice and all-round creepy comments in my mentions.
ICYMI, before hitting send on a tweet, you can select who you'd prefer to receive replies from. You can allow replies from everyone if you're fine with that, but you can also limit your responses to people you follow or just people you've mentioned in your tweet.
But there have been times where, in my overzealousness, I forgot to alter my settings in order to shut the gates on the reply guys. The great news is: you don't need to delete your tweet and start again. As of July, you can edit who can reply after you've tweeted (!!!).
Groundbreaking news, right? I certainly think so.
So, how do you do it? Well it's pretty easy.
1. First of all: compose a tweet. Here's one I made earlier about an episode of Love Island.
2. Next, click on thee three dots in the top right hand corner of your published tweet. Then hit "Change who can reply."
3. Now choose who you'd like to be able to reply to your tweets. You can choose from everyone (and that means reply guys and other randos), people you follow, or just people you mentioned.
4. And there you have it! Your tweet should now be reply-guy-proof.
Aaaah, peace at last.
Related Video: How to not get your social media hacked
Topics Social Media X/Twitter
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
