Since your Tweet = your space, we've been testing new settings to give people more control over the conversations they start. Starting today, everyone will be able to use these settings so unwanted replies don’t get in the way of meaningful conversations.

Here’s how it works. Before you Tweet, choose who can reply with three options:

1.    everyone (standard Twitter, and the default setting),

2.    only people you follow, or

3.    only people you mention. 

Tweets with the latter two settings will be labeled and the reply icon will be grayed out for people who can’t reply. People who can’t reply will still be able to view, Retweet, Retweet with Comment, share, and like these Tweets.

Since we started testing this in May, people have used it to host interviews and panels, share what’s on their mind, and make announcements. We’ve learned a lot from usage, feedback interviews, and surveys. These settings help some people feel safer and could lead to more meaningful conversations, while still allowing people to see different points of view. Here’s more on what people shared with us.

Twitter serves the public conversation, so it’s important for people to be able to see different perspectives. We’ll keep working on making it easier for people to find the entire discussion through Retweets with Comments. Also, we’re trying out a new label to make it more obvious when these conversation settings are used.

We’ll continue to update these Tweet settings based on your feedback. In the next few months we’re planning to add an option to invite more people to the conversation after it starts, clear notifications for when you’re invited to join a conversation using these settings, and more ways to see the entire discussion. 

Everyone can now use these settings on Twitter for iOS and Android as well as twitter.com.