Twitter briefly removes @names from replies on iOS; rolls back changes

New York: Twitter timelines were full of complaints against the experimental change where the names mentioned would be stripped from the start of replies in the notification tab and would not be counted towards the character count in replies on iOS.

Apologising for the "confusion", Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted: "Always working to simplify and make Twitter better for everyone. Appreciate all the feedback (and apologies for the confusion). Learning fast."

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

As per reports, Twitter had announced the changes in May and had been testing them since then.

Twitter announced that it was just an accident, and 'that the feature was just supposed to be an experiment'.

Today, an experiment around replies accidentally went out to everyone on iOS briefly. Upside, we got helpful feedback - we’re listening!

— Twitter Support (@Support) December 9, 2016

Though multiple Twitter users are reporting that the update is gone for them, it may not be gone forever. Reportedly, Twitter is still testing the update with a small group.