Twitter dumps threaded replies, ditches experimental twttr app

Twitter is getting rid of threaded replies just months after incorporating them into the Twitter app, and into Twitter's web portal.

"We asked and you let us know this reply layout wasn't it, as it was harder to read and join conversations," the company tweeted Thursday.

Intended to make conversations easier to follow, the threaded reply design included lines that connected a tweet with the responses listed below it. The idea was that it'd make it easier to tell who was replying to the original tweet and who was replying to another reply to that tweet -- but users expressed enough frustrations with the change for Twitter to do an about-face.

"The new look made convos harder to read & join — we're exploring other ways to make this easier," the company said in a follow-up tweet. Other priorities include adding more conversational control, and more context about who it is you're engaging with.

In addition, Twitter added that, for now, it's shutting down the experimental prototype version of its app, called twttr, which was designed to serve as a proving ground for potential changes to the main Twitter app (as it did with threaded replies).

"We appreciate the feedback you gave us through this run of our prototype app twttr," the company tweeted Thursday. "For now we're turning it off so we can work on new tests to improve the conversation experience on Twitter. 

"If you're using twttr, switch to the main Twitter app to keep up with what's happening."