Twitter is a great tool for small businesses to keep in touch with customers. It’s also one of the simplest tools. But just like spammers have taken over email, spammers and trolls can send out unwanted tweets. While the company has always had certain blocking features in place, it is now in the process of rolling out more features that address several of the darker sides of the popular service. In much the way you can block or filter nuisance email, the new features (some have been around a while) are supposed to reveal what is good about Twitter (staying in touch with your customers, for instance) and mute what is bad (the people or topics you want to avoid).They give you the option to mute tweets that contain particular words, phrases, usernames, emojis or hashtags. Muting will remove these tweets from your notifications tab, push notifications, text-mail, email notifications, home timeline, and from replies to tweets.* Here are some explanations of Twitter mute features. For more, visit Twitter’s guide to muting and advanced guide to muting.

How to mute words and hashtags*

1. Muting is not case-sensitive. For example: If you add “CATS” to your mute list, any mention of “cats” will be muted from your notifications.
2. You can include punctuation within a word or phrase when muting. Punctuation at the end of a word or phrase is not necessary.
3. Muting a word will mute both the word itself and its hashtag. For example:
   If you mute “unicorn,” both “unicorn” and “#unicorn” will be muted from your notifications.
4. To mute tweet notifications, tweets in your home timeline, or replies to tweets that mention a particular account, you must include the “@” sign before the name. Doing this will mute tweet notifications that mention that account, but won’t mute the account itself. Learn how to mute accounts here.
5. Words, phrases, usernames, emojis, and hashtags up to 140 characters can be muted.
6. Muting is possible across all Twitter-supported languages.
7. Muting is set to a default time period of forever. Instructions on how to adjust the mute time period is listed below for supported devices.
8. You can view a list of your muted words (and unmute them) in your settings.
9. Recommendations delivered to you via email or through Twitter will not suggest content that includes your muted words and hashtags.

Device and software-specific ways to mute words or hashtags on Twitter

From the Twitter for iOS app

1. Go to your notifications tab 
2. Tap the gear icon 
3. Tap Muted words.
4. Tap Add.
5. Type in the word or hashtag you’d like to mute.
   Note: Entries can only be added one a time.
6. Select whether to enable this in home timeline or notifications, or both.
7. Select whether this is From anyone or From people you don’t follow (for enabled notifications only).
8. Tap For how long? and choose between Forever, 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days.
9. Tap Save.
10. You will see the mute time period indicated next to each entered word or hashtag.
11. Tap Done to exit.

From the Twitter for Android app

1. Go to your notifications tab 
2. Tap the gear icon 
3. Tap Muted words.
4. Tap the plus icon 
5. Type in the word or hashtag you’d like to mute.
   Note: Entries can only be added one a time.
6. Select whether to enable this in home timeline or notifications, or both.
7. Select whether this is Anyone or From people you don’t follow (for enabled notifications only, tap notifications to adjust).
8. Tap For how long? and choose between Forever, 24 hours from now, 7 days from now, or 30 days from now.)
9. Tap Save.
10. You will see the muted icon  and the mute time period next to each entered word or hashtag.

Via Twitter.com

1. Click Settings and privacy from your profile image drop-down.
2. Click Muted words.
3. Click Add.
4. Enter the word or hashtag you’d like to mute.
   Note: Entries can only be added one a time.
5. Select home timeline if you wish to mute the word or phrase from your home timeline.
6. Select notifications if you wish to mute the word or phrase from your notifications.
   1. Specify From anyone or From only people I don’t follow.
7. Under For how long? choose between Forever, 24 hours from now, 7 days from now, or 30 days from now.)
8. Click Add.
9. You will see the mute time period indicated next to each entered word or hashtag.

Via mobile.twitter.com

1. Go to your notifications tab 
2. Tap the gear icon 
3. Tap Muted words.
4. Click +Add muted or phrase.
5. Type in the word or hashtag you’d like to mute.
   Note: Entries can only be added one a time.
6. If you wish to mute that word or phrase on your home timeline, check the box.
7. If you wish to mute that word or phrase from your notifications, check the box.
   1. Select whether this is From anyone or From only people I follow (for notifications only).
8. Under For how long? choose between Forever, 24 hours from now, 7 days from now, or 30 days from now.)
9. Click Save.
10. You will see a muted button  and the mute time period next to each entered word or hashtag.

Muting notifications for a conversation

If you would like to stop receiving notifications for a particular conversation, you can choose to mute it. When you mute a conversation, you won’t get any new notifications about that conversation. You will, however, still see tweets from the conversation in your timeline and when you click into the original tweet.

To mute a conversation via twitter.com, or from your Twitter for iOS or Android app:

1. Go to the tweet detail of any tweet or a reply in the conversation you wish to mute.
2. Click or tap the  icon.
3. Tap Mute this conversation.

• Muting accounts on Twitter
• Advanced muting of words, hashtags, etc.
• About Direct Messages