How to Mute Words on Twitter in 3 Steps (With Photos)

Facebook is a great place to keep up with friends and family, sharing one another’s milestones and accomplishments with posts and photos. Instagram is ideal for sharing pictures and videos, as well as keeping up with pictures and videos from celebrities and public figures. Twitter, however, sort of functions like a hybrid of the two.

You get the status updates found on Facebook, and you get the pictures and videos found on Instagram, all organized in a user-friendly home feed. As it turns out, that feed can be even more user-friendly when you mute words on Twitter.

This nifty mute feature is one of the greatest parts of Twitter. There are just a couple of hang-ups, however. Why mute words on Twitter in the first place? What’s the true benefit of muting as opposed to, say, blocking or unfollowing? Also, how do you mute words on Twitter to begin with?

Is the process the same for the web and for mobile? Let’s lay it all out there, complete with an explainer on muting and a step-by-step guide for muting words on Twitter for both the web and mobile. Follow along with the pictures below.

Why Mute Words on Twitter?

Muting is a Twitter feature that lets users completely remove an account, a keyword, a hashtag, or a phrase from their personal timeline without the need to unfollow or block them. Muting a word, hashtag, phrase, or account will not let anyone know that they’ve been muted.

What’s more, you can set a temporary mute for a given period of time. You can also manually unmute a word, hashtag, phrase, or account at any time you please. Whether it’s for 24 hours, a week, a year, or indefinitely, muting is a great way to keep your feed clean of things you don’t want to see.

Before outlining the steps it takes to mute words on Twitter, it helps to understand the benefits of muting in the first place. There are several instances where muting is preferable to blocking or unfollowing someone, and there are even more instances where muting is the only option that makes sense.

After all, you can’t block or unfollow an entire trending topic or news item. Here are four great examples of the feature in action.

1. Avoiding Spoilers

Muting is an essential tool when trying to avoid spoilers for the latest trending film or television show. You might be trying to keep the new Marvel movie’s post-credits scene off your feed, or to steer clear of the cliffhanger ending from last night’s episode Yellowstone.

Either way, muting lets you keep specific words, phrases, and hashtags from appearing on your feed and potentially spoiling something major. Set the time limit for a day, a week, a month, what have you — however long you feel it’s necessary to avoid spoilers.

2. Silencing Sensitive Topics

You can also utilize the mute feature when trying to protect yourself from sensitive or potentially triggering topics. Sometimes, there are words and phrases that set something off within us and have the potential to ruin our day as a result.

It could be political, social, emotional, personal… it doesn’t matter. If it’s a word or phrase you know will upset you if you see it on your feed, mute it forever and protect your peace. It’s a good way to ensure you have a nice time on the site without having to be fearful of sensitive topics.

3. Ignoring Annoying Trends

There comes a time in every trend’s life when it has passed the point of being interesting, funny, or entertaining. After crossing this line in the sand, encountering the trend online is more annoying than anything.

Instead of getting irritated every time you see someone embracing the trend a little too late for relevance, you can merely mute it. From hashtags and phrases to words, anything pertaining to an annoying trend can be muted for good, effectively booting it from your feed and ensuring you never have to be annoyed by it again.

4. Curating Your Twitter Experience

When you mute words on Twitter, you’re working to create a more personal, curated feed. At the end of the day, this is the ultimate goal for any social media user: to create a more perfect, more enjoyable user experience.

Regardless if you’re muting a mutual follower that posts too much, a trending topic that gets on your nerves, or simply the title of the latest blockbuster until you can get a chance to see it, to mute words on Twitter is to maintain an optimal home feed that keeps you coming back to the site with happiness instead of irritation.

How to Mute Words on Twitter for the Web

There are two distinct ways to use Twitter: on a web browser, and on a mobile device. You can mute words on Twitter in both instances, but the process looks different for both. We’ll show you how to mute on both, beginning with Twitter for the web.

Step 1: Go to Content Settings

Firstly, go to the Twitter home page. In the top right-hand corner of your home feed, you’ll see a star icon above the “What’s happening?” text box. Click that icon.

At this point, you’ll see a menu pop up that gives you two options: “See latest Tweets instead” (or “Go back Home,” if you’re already seeing the latest Tweets) and “View content preferences.” You’ll want to click the latter option. This will take you to your content preferences on the Settings page.

Step 2: Click Muted

Once in content preferences, click on the word “Muted” beneath the Safety subheading. You’ll find this past the Explore and Languages subheadings and before the Personalization and data subheading. Once you’ve clicked Muted, you’ll be taken to the Mute and block page.

Step 3: Mute Accounts, Words, Notifications, and More

From here, you can do one of several things: Block an account, mute an account, mute words on Twitter, and mute Twitter notifications. For the purpose of this guide, we’ll focus on muting words. Click Muted words and then click the Plus in the top right-hand corner.

Here, you’ll be able to enter the word, phrase, or hashtag you’d like to mute. Twitter gives you the option to mute from both the Home timeline and the Notifications tab, as well as the ability to mute anyone or just the people you don’t follow. Additionally, you can choose to mute for a day, a week, a month, or indefinitely. When you’re done, click Save.

How to Mute Words on Twitter for Mobile

When you mute words on Twitter for mobile, the process looks slightly different than it does for the web. For this reason, we’ve outlined the steps you need to take to mute words on Twitter for mobile below.

Step 1: Go to Settings and Privacy

To mute words on Twitter for mobile, tap your profile icon in the top left-hand corner of the app’s home page. On this pop-out side menu, scroll down until you see Settings and Support. Tap that, and then tap Settings and privacy on the drop-down menu. This will take you to your account settings.

Step 2: Tap Privacy and Safety, then Mute and Block

From the Settings page, you’ll have to do some maneuvering to get to the appropriate page. Tap Privacy and safety beneath Monetization and above Notifications. Then, tap Mute and block beneath Content you see and above Direct messages.

Step 3: Mute Accounts, Words, Notifications, and More

At last, you’ve reached the relevant page: Mute and block. As with Twitter for the web, you’re given the option to block or mute a variety of accounts, words, notifications, and more. Tap Muted words, then tap Add in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. (No handy Plus icon, as with Twitter for the web.)

Here, the process looks more or less the same as Twitter for the web. Enter the word, phrase, or hashtag you want to mute, customize your settings, and then click Save.

Check out this informative video on how to mute specific words and phrases on Twitter. Whether you want to avoid spoilers, reduce noise, or simply create a more tailored browsing experience, this tutorial has got you covered. Click the link to discover the step-by-step process and take control of your Twitter content!

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Sattalat Phukkum/Shutterstock.com.