A recent update to the Twitter app (I’m using the Android version) has resulted in the most pointlessly annoying thing Twitter has done in a long time. Twitter is trying to be smart, and is pro-actively sending notifications to tell me when several people I follow are discussing a common subject.
But the problem is that I know that.
I have a varied set of interests and I tend to follow groups of people who share that interest.
I follow a number of football writers, and it’s not exactly surprising when they’re all talking about football during football matches.
I follow a number of tennis writers and broadcasters, and again it’s not surprising when they’re all talking about the Australian Open.
I follow a number cyclists, cycling writers and broadcasters, and… well you know what’s coming.
Telling me that people are talking about something that is happening right now is no interest. I know when sports fixtures are taking place thanks. I can go on Twitter to see the buzz if I want to.
Similarly, I’m really not interested when people I follow are discussing shoddy “reality” shows on TV. Maybe the fact I’m not using Twitter to talk about such garbage suggests that I’m not interested?
One way or another, the only thing I can do is try to turn off these notifications. It’s not at all clear in the options how to do this. And if I end up turning off other notifications as a by-product then so be it. Of course that makes Twitter less useful rather than more.
[Update] I think I have a solution to this problem which you can read here.