What are @Replies and Mentions?

What is an @Reply?

A reply is any update posted by clicking the "Reply" button on another Tweet

People say lots of things on Twitter, and sometimes you want to say something back. Your reply will always begin with @username (insert username of the person you are replying to). Anyone Tweet that is a reply to you will show up in your @Mentions tab on your homepage.
To post a reply on Twitter:

• Find the Tweet you want to react to on Twitter.
• Hover your mouse over their message and click the "reply" icon.
• Complete your Tweet in the box that pops up, and click "Tweet" to send it

What is an @Mention?

A mention is any Twitter update that contains @username anywhere in the body of the Tweet. (Yes, this means that replies are also considered mentions.)

We noticed people frequently searching for their user name (@username) to find the Tweets that mention their username anywhere in the message. We collect these messages, as well as all your replies, in the @Mentions tab on your homepage. If you include more than one person's name in your update and you use the @username format, those people will all see the update in their personal mentions tab.
To post a mention on Twitter:

• Type your message normally, but replace any names you include with @username (including the person's Twitter username). Our system will recognize and highlight the username that way, as shown below for this mention of @FreelanceWhales (a super cool band that we mentioned).

If I see a reply in my timeline, how do I know what message they replied to?

Easy! Just click any space around the Tweet and your details pane will open to display the Tweet they replied to, as well as other content related to the message.

Things to Note:

• When you visit another user's profile page on Twitter, you will not see a mentions tab for them. But you can search for all Tweets mentioning their username in our search box. Search for "@username" to view results.
• People will only see others' replies in their home timeline if they are following both the sender and recipient of the update.
• People will see any mentions posted by someone they follow (all mentions are treated like regular Tweets).
• People with protected accounts can only send replies to people they have approved to follow them.
• If someone sends you a reply and you are not following the user, the reply will not appear on your Home timeline. Instead, the reply will appear in your Mentions timeline.
• Replies will always have "in reply to" listed next to their timestamp. If a Tweet doesn't have this, it's a mention.