Twitter is reportedly looking to getting rid of @replies and hashtags

Twitter is looking to get rid of the hashtags and the @replies, according to a report on BuzzFeed. The BuzzFeed report is based on the comments of Vivian Schiller, head of news at Twitter,during her talk at the Newspaper Association of America’s mediaXchange conference in Denver. The report says that "Schiller called at-replies and hashtags “arcane” and hinted that Twitter might soon move them into the background of the service." On Schiller's comments, Twitter has said that she was echoing what CEO Dick Costolo had said in a recent earning's calls. Costolo's statement however had not specifically mentioned @ and # symbols. He had said, "By bringing the content of Twitter forward and pushing the scaffolding of the language of Twitter to the background, we can increase high-quality interactions and make it more likely that new or casual users will find this service as indispensable as our existing core users do."  Meanwhile Schiller has backed off the comments and tweeted saying that Twitter is not at all considering getting rid of the symbols. You can check out here tweet below:

@StKonrath @cwarzel Not at all — Vivian Schiller (@vivian) March 19, 2014

 If Twitter does get rid the @ symbol and hashtags, it could mean the end of Twitter as we know it. Let's face it one of the reasons that Facebook is now filled with hashtags on nearly every photo post is due to the fact that these were popularised on Twitter. It will also mean the end of all those hashtag inspired pop culture references and videos like this:  Would Twitter dare?