When we launched Twist in 2017, our goal was to give teams the space to work in a calm, organized way, free from distractions. That meant no more endless chats, always-on expectations, and especially no noisy notification blitzes.
But as avid users of Twist ourselves, we know that there are times when you need to get someone’s attention in a specific thread or message. How could we design that into Twist without causing more interruptions?
Our answer is a Twistified version of @Mentions—a fast (yet unobtrusive) way to get a teammate’s attention on the right thing.
Let’s say you need Antonia to see a specific comment in a long thread that involves several other teammates. Simply type @Antonia, select her name from the drop-down list, and post the comment.
Not only will Antonia be automatically added to the notify field, but the next time she checks her Twist Inbox she’ll see the thread where she was mentioned at the top of the list, marked with a blue @ sign.
And when she opens the thread, her name will be highlighted in blue so she knows exactly where to look first. She’ll be able to quickly respond to just the things that need her attention most without getting pulled into the whole thread or conversation.
Of course, you can mention people in messages, too.
We hope that mentions will help people stay on top of the information that is most relevant to them,” says Alex Muench, the lead designer behind @mentions. “They can reduce the feeling of overwhelm people have when first opening Twist, and will help them work more calmly and confidently.
Share how you and your team use mentions in your day to day on Twitter @twistappteam. And learn everything there is to know about mentions in our help center.
