As the world continues to wait for Twitter to realize an edit button is a good idea, we are at least getting one welcome new feature for our tweets. From next week, people in Canada can start hiding replies.

Twitter is introducing the new feature as a response to "distracting, irrelevant, and offensive replies," which can get in the way of a good and friendly discussion. Posting on the Twitter blog, senior product manager Michelle Yasmeen Haq and product designer Brittany Forks, explain that, "We believe people should have some control over the conversations they start. So we're going to test a new feature that gives people the option to hide replies to their Tweets."

To hide a reply, the original tweeter simply needs to tap the down arrow on the unwanted reply and then select "Hide Reply" from the options. It will then disappear from the conversation for anyone else viewing it. However, the replies are only hidden and not deleted. Anyone can tap the new icon that appears in the bottom right hand corner of the original tweet and choose to see all hidden replies if they so wish.

Clearly Twitter is attempting to balance control without being accused of censorship. The original tweeter can now control the conversation by hiding anything they don't like, think is offensive, or simply doesn't add anything to the conversation. At the same time, readers can see everything with a couple of taps of the screen or mouse.

The roll out to Canada alone next week is so that Twitter can get feedback and see how well the hide reply feature works. If it proves popular and doesn't throw up any red flags, we should expect it to appear more widely within a few weeks I'd imagine.

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