In the face of his endless spitballing of new features for the social media network he reluctantly bought, CEO Musk has announced plans for Twitter to no longer display which device atweet was sent from. Musk said that he thinks the feature is a waste of screen space and computation.

He said no one knew why they did that.

Three things. I don't know if this change will come to pass. The launch of Musk's most high-profile new feature, paid verification, had to be paused in the face of massive problems as a result of Musk's takeover ofTwitter. You can't be certain of a new feature being launched until it's actually launched.

There are many reasons why we did that. Chris Messina believes that showing what device sent a tweet was a good way of giving visibility to formerly third-party clients like Tweetie and TweetDeck and providing a "status indicator" to show whether a tweet was sent from desktop or mobile. Jack Dorsey was the former CEO and co- founder of the social networking site. He replied that he was correct.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, is that the ability to see what kind of device was used to send a message is a fun feature.

It has to be said, that has been because of some good old fashioned fuck ups when social media managers for various non-Apple phone brands have been caught using their phones. A Microsoft executive was caught cheating multiple times on the Windows Phone with an Apple device. What better way to promote a phone than to send a message to Tim Cook from one of his own phones. It is possible to express your love for the new Note 3 using the medium of an Apple device.

It was the first time that brand ambassador Gal Gadot was caught talking about her new phone. Gadot was quick to assure everyone that she loves her HUAWEI P20 and Mate10 Pro, but that a member of her publicity team had posted a promotional message on their phone.

Having fun at a famous celebrity's expense is one thing, but I have to admit that I felt a little more sympathy for the external PR team when it was reported that they had demoted two employees and docked their pay by hundreds of dollars a month.

The best use of the device indicator feature of all time came from an account simply named "Dorothy" who claimed to have a smart fridge after her mom took her electronics. I am talking to my fridge and I don't know if this is going to cause a stir on social media. There was a note underneath that said it had been sent fromLG Smart Refrigerator.

There were notes that claimed to have been sent from the Wii U console. I'm leaving permanently. The phone was taken by my mother. I will be missing you all. I'm sad. She is said to have used the Nintendo 3DS's image share feature.

A screenshot of Dorothy’s now-deleted LG smart fridge tweet.
Dorothy’s tweet, which was allegedly sent from an LG smart fridge.
Screenshot by BuzzFeed News

The incident was almost certainly fake. It is easy to tell what device you want to show up on the screen of your phone. The social network didn't offer an app for smart fridges, and while it would theoretically be possible to send atweet via a smart appliance's built-in web browser, these would likely carry the "Twitter Web App" label rather than anything specific to the device

Comedy doesn't have to be funny. The idea of a teenager being so determined to post that they resort to using Nintendo consoles and a refrigerator is funny, and it's a neat creative flourish.

I don't think I agree with Musk that the feature is a waste of screen space and compute. His changes to the verification marks have already necessitated adding an entirely new official designation to every single account, which seems like a far bigger waste of screen space, and Twitter engineers have lined up to vocally criticize Musk's understanding of the performance problems that have supposedly

There are only a few times when you can laugh at a brand for using a mobile device. The small features that make hellsite an occasionally funny place to hang out are at risk if Musk goes upside down.