To mute someone in the Twitter (now X) iPhone app, tap the more icon at the top of one of their posts, or on their profile, and tap Mute. Their posts disappear from your Home timeline, and they are not told that you muted them.
Muting is a softer option than unfollowing or blocking. It is handy when someone live-posts an event and floods your feed, or when you want a break from an account without making it awkward. The steps and behavior described here follow the X Help Center page on muting accounts.
Before You Start
This guide covers the X app for iPhone, which is the app that used to be called Twitter. You need to be signed in to your own account. Muting is a standard feature, and X does not list a paid subscription as a requirement for it.
A few terms used below:
- Home timeline is the main feed of posts you see when you open the app.
- More icon is the small menu button on a post or a profile that opens extra options such as Mute, Block and Report.
- Post is the current name for a tweet, and a repost is the current name for a retweet.
X changes its app layout fairly often. If a label on your screen is worded a little differently from what you see here, look for the closest match. For example, the Mute option may be followed by the username of the account.
How to Mute Someone in the X iPhone App
There are two places to mute an account. Use whichever is closer to hand.
From a post (fastest):
- Open the X app and find a post from the account you want to mute. It can be in your Home timeline, in a reply thread or in search results.
- Tap the more icon at the top of that post. A menu of options for the post and its author opens.
- Tap Mute. If the app asks you to confirm, confirm it.
From a profile:
- Go to the profile page of the account. You can tap the account name on any post, or search for the username.
- Tap the more icon near the top of the profile.
- Tap Mute.
Once the account is muted, its posts are removed from your Home timeline. If you follow the account, that includes posts it made before you muted it. You stay followers of each other if you were before.
The same two methods are documented for the X app on Android and for x.com in a browser. The mute is tied to your account, not to your iPhone, so it is not something you need to set up again on each device.
What Muting Does and Doesn’t Do
Muting changes what you see. It does not change anything for the other person. According to X:
- Muted accounts are not told that you muted them, and you can unmute them at any time.
- They can still follow you, and you can still follow them. Muting does not unfollow anyone.
- They can still send you Direct Messages.
- You stop getting push and SMS notifications from the muted account.
A few details depend on whether you follow the account you muted.
| Situation | You follow the muted account | You don’t follow the muted account |
|---|---|---|
| Their replies and mentions of you | Still appear in your Notifications tab | Do not appear in your Notifications tab |
| Their replies when you open a conversation | Visible | Hidden |
| Their older posts | Removed from your Home timeline | Not in your Home timeline to begin with |
There is one more case worth knowing. If someone you have not muted quotes a post from an account you have muted, X hides the quoted post and shows a This post is unavailable message in its place.
How to Confirm an Account Is Muted
The easiest check is your muted accounts list, which is covered in the next section. If the account appears there, the mute is active.
You can also open the profile of the account. X says the iPhone app shows an unmute icon at the top of a muted profile, which is the same control you use to reverse the mute.
How to Unmute Someone or See Your Muted Accounts
To unmute one account, visit its profile and tap the unmute icon at the top. To see everyone you have muted in the iPhone app:
- Tap your navigation menu icon. This is your profile picture at the top of the screen.
- Tap Settings and privacy. In some versions of the app it sits inside a Settings and Support group that you tap first.
- Tap Privacy and safety.
- Under Safety, tap Muted. On x.com the same section is named Mute and block, so the app may use that name too.
- Tap Muted accounts. A list of every account you have muted opens.
- Tap the mute icon next to anyone you want to unmute.
After you unmute an account, its new posts can appear in your Home timeline again and its notifications are no longer held back. From this list you can also tap a profile image to open that profile if you decide you would rather block or report the account.
Mute vs. Block: Which One to Use
Muting is the right choice when an account is only noisy. It is the wrong choice when you need someone to stop contacting you, because a muted account can still reply to you, mention you and message you. That is what blocking is for.
Warning: blocking is harder to keep quiet and harder to undo cleanly. The X Help Center page on blocking says that blocking an account you follow makes you unfollow each other, and that you have to follow the account again if you unblock it later. The blocked person is not sent a notification, but they can see that they are blocked if they visit your profile. X also notes that if your posts are public, a blocked account can still see them. It just cannot like, reply to or repost them.
To block instead, tap the same more icon on a post or profile, tap Block, and then tap Block again to confirm. If an account is breaking the rules of X, the Report option in that menu is the way to flag it. Muting does not report anything.
If the problem is a topic and not a person, the advanced muting options on X let you mute words, phrases, usernames, emojis and hashtags:
- Go to your Notifications tab and tap the gear icon.
- Tap Muted, then Muted words, then Add.
- Type the word or hashtag. You can only add one entry at a time.
- Choose whether to mute it in your Home timeline, your Notifications, or both.
- Pick From anyone or From people you don’t follow. This choice applies to notifications.
- Tap For how long? and choose Forever, 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days. Forever is the default.
- Tap Save, then Done.
Things X says about muted words:
- Muting is not case-sensitive, so muting CATS also mutes cats.
- Muting a word also mutes its hashtag. You do not need to add both.
- To mute posts that mention a particular account, type the @ sign before the username. This hides mentions of that account. It does not mute the account itself.
- Muted words only apply to your notifications and Home timeline. You will still see those posts if you search for them.
- If you turned on mobile notifications for every post from an account, those alerts still arrive even when a post contains a muted word.
To change or remove an entry, go back to Muted words and tap the word. Change the settings and tap Save, or tap Delete word and confirm.
How to Mute a Conversation
Sometimes the account is fine and one busy thread is the problem. Muting a conversation stops new notifications from that thread only.
- Open the post, or any reply in the conversation, so that you see its detail view.
- Tap the more icon.
- Tap Mute this conversation.
- Tap to confirm.
You will not get new notifications about that conversation. X notes that you will still see posts from it in your timeline and when you open the original post, so this is a notification fix and not a way to hide the thread.
Troubleshooting
You still see posts from an account you muted. Check where you are seeing them. Muting clears the Home timeline, but replies from a muted account that you follow stay visible when you open a conversation, and its mentions of you still reach your Notifications tab. Posts can also show up in search results. If you want none of that, unfollow the account as well as muting it, or block it.
You are still getting messages from them. That is expected. Muting does not affect Direct Messages. Blocking does stop an account from messaging you.
You can’t find Mute in the menu. Make sure you tapped the more icon on a post by that account, or on its profile, and not the share icon. If the account is already muted, the menu or profile offers the option to unmute it. Installing the latest version of X from the App Store is also worth trying when menu options look different from the ones X documents.
You can’t find the muted accounts list. The name of the section has varied. Look inside Privacy and safety for an item called Muted or Mute and block. The gear icon on the Notifications tab is another route to the Muted settings.
A muted word is not being filtered. Open the entry and check that Home timeline is turned on and that the time period has not run out. Remember that search results are not filtered.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the person know I muted them?
No. X says muted accounts will not know that you have muted them. They are not sent a notification, and X describes muting as invisible to the muted account.
Does muting someone on X unfollow them?
No. Muting an account does not make you unfollow it, and it does not remove that account from your followers. If you want to stop following as well, you have to unfollow separately.
Can a muted account still message me or see my posts?
Yes. Muting does not affect the ability of the account to send you a Direct Message, and it places no limits on what the account can see or do. If you need to stop contact, block the account.
Can I mute someone for a set amount of time?
X documents time limits of 24 hours, 7 days and 30 days for muted words and hashtags. Its page on muting accounts does not mention a timer, so plan on unmuting an account yourself when you are ready.
Does muting an account on my iPhone also apply on my computer?
Muting is saved to your X account, and X lets you view the same muted accounts list in the iPhone app, the Android app and on x.com. You do not need to mute the account again on each device.
Can I make the X app easier to read?
Yes. See how to turn on dark mode in the X iPhone app and how to change text size in the X app.
Next Steps
Once the noisy accounts are muted, a few other settings can make the app calmer. See how to turn off video autoplay in the X iPhone app and how to stop X from using cellular data. To post a web page you are reading, see how to share on X from Safari on your iPhone.
Matthew Burleigh is the founder, head writer, and editor of Solve Your Tech, which he launched in 2012. He has written technology tutorials since 2008 and worked in IT since 2003, including small-business support, IT management, and consulting. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Arizona State University.
Matthew writes practical guides for Windows, iPhone and iPad, Microsoft Office, Outlook, Google apps, and Android. Solve Your Tech’s guides are tested on current devices or checked against official product documentation, with clear steps, sources, and update dates.
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