Twitter Is Testing A Feature To Make Its Users Nicer To Each Other Through ‘Humanization Prompts’

Twitter is a tough place to exist in even the best of times, but according to a report the company is trying to make everyone using the social media site to remember that actual humans exist behind all those avatars. Well, mostly.

According to Mashable, Twitter is testing a feature that will show you some mutual interests in a window below what you may fire off at a random stranger with a bad take on the social media site.

The intent is to make you think twice about roasting a human with a bad opinion because you both like, you know, cats or something.

The company began testing a new feature, dubbed humanization prompts, on Thursday with the goal of improving conversational health on the platform. As part of the test, some Twitter users will be presented with the shared interests and mutual followers of the accounts they’re replying to.

In other words, humanization prompts aim to not-so-subtly point out what Twitter users have in common. But don’t be surprised if you personally don’t see the prompts. The test will only go into effect for approximately 10 percent of English-speaking Android users.

Fittingly, that Mashable tweet had some pretty funny responses in the replies about some of the weirdness that may come from knowing mutual interests among your sworn internet enemies.

Some think this kind of thing may just end up being weaponized, anyway.

The most common response to all this is that Twitter should simply get rid of abusive users of the platform and better protect users from Nazis and trolls, rather than encourage them to just play nice with others. But perhaps that’s more difficult than using some algorithms to discover that most people like dogs.

[via Mashable]