Twitter's iOS app experienced a subtle but Lee Doimportant change Friday -- the old style of replies, which required placing the "@" character in front of the username of the person you're replying to, was briefly gone, and replaced with the text "replying to" above the tweet.
Twitter quickly reverted the change, explaining on its Support account that it was an "experiment" which "accidentally" went out to all iOS users.
SEE ALSO: Twitter's ongoing strategy? Video, video, video.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
The new approach to replying had some unintended consequences; since the @ replies didn't count against Twitter's 140-character limit, you could add as many as you wanted in one tweet -- and spam all those people in the process.
@ProfJeffJarviss @dlberes @petersterne @mcwm @shaneferro @TaylorLorenz @spencerpratt @alex @kylesethgray @jmcduling @iankar_ @davegershgorn @jack @AlexJamesFitz @mekosoff @MikeIsaac Now that I have y'all's attention, let me tell you about amway. You can make $$$ while benefiting from outstanding savings.
— Roberto Baldwin (@strngwys) December 9, 2016
Twitter explained in September that it's testing this feature with a small subset of users. However, now that it rolled out for everyone on iOS, the users were not impressed.
why is the @ gone on replies wtf I don't like this
— James Charles (@jamescharles) December 9, 2016
twitter removed @ from replies in the timeline can 2016 get any worse
— Owen 💁 (@ow) December 8, 2016
got mad at the twitter update but then i realized they might just be trying to confuse trump and i chilled
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) December 9, 2016
TWITTER DROPPED @'ing USERS IN REPLIES NOW SAYING "@ ME NEXT TIME" MAKES NO SENSE pic.twitter.com/Cfhb7BoJbN
— Sailor Bee (@sailorbee) December 8, 2016
Don't worry folks, it's over. For now.
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