Is there a way to turn certain pieces of text into @mentions?

If I needed to ping a friend for something (e.g. @Panchito1505), is there a way to ping them without needing to explicitly mention their @PNID (like saying “Hey, Pancho!”)? It would be better that way so it doesn’t look like you don’t know them. :sweat_smile:

why ping me sis :sob:

silently mention? I don’t think so?