Twitter announced Wednesday it is testing a new feature called Communities that will allow users to talk about specific topics with others who share the same interest.
Users who join a community can tweet specifically to others in that community as opposed to all of their followers, and the only people who can reply to community tweets will be other members of those communities.
Unlike Twitter’s competitors, however, all tweets within Communities will be visible to the public. This means that users outside of Communities will be able to read, quote tweet and report tweets within them.
The first Twitter Communities at launch are focused on dogs, weather, sneakers, skin care and astrology, the company said.
Communities will have moderators, and while Community creation will be limited at first, Twitter said it will allow more people to create Communities in the coming months.