Tumblr announced on Tuesday it is finally adding capabilities for users to directly mention others on the site, a feature that’s been long requested by its dedicated fan base. By typing the “@” symbol and typing the username of who you want to address inside a Tumblr post, a drop down menu will appear. The mentions will trigger a notification in the recipient’ in-stream on the dashboard, as well as on the “activity” page.
Tumblr wants to make sure you know when you’re mentioned by friends on the Yahoo-owned blogging service. For at least four months, users have been able to use the @-sign to autocomplete friends’ Tumblr usernames and automatically link to their blogs. The new wrinkle in the feature is that now when you’re mentioned, Tumblr notifies you on your Activity page. Previously, Tumblr had three channels of communication that resulted in an alert. You could like posts, reblog posts, or send an “ask” in order for Tumblr to automatically alert a friend on their Dashboard that you’re trying to get in touch.