Speedboxer

This plugin will convert valid <a href="http://twitter.com/" title="Twitter" rel="nofollow ugc">Twitter</a> usernames mentioned in comments into a link to their Twitter profile page. For example, if somebody mentions “@mattfreedman” in their comment, this plugin will check with Twitter to see if the user “mattfreedman” exists (which is does) and when it does, it will convert it into “<a href="http://twitter.com/mattfreedman" rel="nofollow ugc">@mattfreedman</a>“.
Please note: As this plugin converts usernames on the fly (whenever and everytime somebody views the comments), and checks Twitter for every username (to ensure it’s valid), I strongly recommend using a caching plugin such as <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/" title="WP Super Cache" rel="ugc">WP Super Cache</a>. Which will not only lessen the load on Twitter’s servers, but also speed up page loads.
Although it says this plugin requires WordPress 2.6, I see no reason why it wouldn’t work with earlier versions, I just haven’t tested it with earlier version.
This plugin requires cURL to be installed on your server, and has only been tested with PHP 5.2.x.

Twitter Links

Converts Twitter usernames mentioned in comments (eg. @mattfreedman) with a link to the mentioned user's Twitter profile page.

This plugin allows you to add Twitter-like @reply links to comments. 
When clicked, those links insert the author name and a link to the comment you are replying to in the textarea.
Most of the code is taken from the Custom Smilies plugin by Quang Anh Do which is released under GNU GPL : 
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-smilies/
Thanks to Guillaume Ringuenet for the arrow graphics.
I didn’t create anything new, and I do not claim so in any way. 
This plugin is just a feature I wanted and judging by the number of downloads I guess I wasn’t the only one. 😉

@ Reply

This plugin allows you to add Twitter-like @reply links to comments.

Twitter Links vs @ Reply