Twitter has begun testing Flock, its take on Instagram’s Close Friends feature

When it launches globally, Twitter’s new Flock feature will allow you to share content privately with up to 150 people designated as your trusted friends.

Twitter's concept image showing the Trusted Friends (aka Flock) feature in action
  • Twitter designed the Flock feature to help you maintain some level of privacy when tweeting by allowing you to tweet only to up to 150 close friends
  • The feature has been in active development since July 2021 and is currently available to a small percentage of users who are included in the test
  • There’s no telling when Twitter Flock may release globally

Twitter Flock is like Instagram’s Close Friends feature

As reported by Input, mobile developer Alessandro Paluzzi has unearthed a splash screen for this feature within the app code that explains how the feature works. According to the company and the screenshots Paluzzi shared on his Twitter, customers will be able to cherry-pick up to 150 people to include in their list of trusted friends, called Flock.

You would then simply hit the audience selector in the compose window to choose whether everyone on Twitter will see your post or only your trusted friends on the Flock list. People included in your Flock tweet audience will see a notice saying, “You can see this tweet because the author has added you to their Flock.”

You can add or remove people from this curated list at will, but you can’t have more than 150 close friends included on the list. Your Flock list is completely private and only you can see who’s on it. Thankfully, people won’t be notified if you remove them from the list.

Here’s what the splash screen says:

  • Add people to your flock: You can choose up to 150 people to include in your Twitter Flock.
  • Share content privately: Only people in your Twitter Flock can view and reply to your tweets.
  • Update your list anytime: People won’t be notified if you remove them from your Twitter Flock.

It’s unclear when this feature might be ready for prime time. For now, Twitter keeps working on Flock’s implementation on iOS. Keep in mind that “Flock” here could just be a placeholder name—at the time the feature was known as “Trusted Friends”. Read: What are and how to share stories with Close Friends on Instagram

Similar to Close Friends on Instagram

Instagram has had a similar feature, dubbed Close Friends. They’re not completely the same as there exist a few differences between Instagram’s and Twitter’s implementation. People on your Close Friends list on Instagram, for instance, will know they’re on it, but they can’t see who else is on it. And if someone has added you to their list, you’ll see a green badge when you’re viewing their stories and a green ring around their profile photo.

Twitter is also testing other unreleased features, including reaction videos, but there are no guarantees that some or any of them may become everyday features for all users.