Twitter testing downvote option for tweet replies

Twitter has announced that it is testing a downvote option for replies to tweets, telling users that it is a “test for research”.

The company made the announcement on its Twitter Support account.

“We’re testing this to understand the types of replies you find relevant in a convo, so we can work on ways to show more of them,” the company said.

The test includes both upvotes and downvotes, and seems to draw inspiration from Reddit’s post ranking system, which uses the same name for user reactions.

How Twitter plans to use downvote feature

Some of you on iOS may see different options to up or down vote on replies. We're testing this to understand the types of replies you find relevant in a convo, so we can work on ways to show more of them.

Your downvotes aren’t public, while your upvotes will be shown as likes. pic.twitter.com/hrBfrKQdcY

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 21, 2021

However, Twitter notes that downvotes are not shown publicly. Meanwhile, upvotes will be shown as likes.

This differs significantly from Reddit’s system, where posts or comments are given scores based on the number of upvotes and downvotes. Posts on Reddit will show negative scores (such as -12) if the downvotes outweigh the upvotes.

The feature is only being shown to some iOS users at the moment.

Users will see thumbs up and thumbs down button on tweet replies.

Twitter said in its announcement thread that the feature is not meant to be a dislike button. It also added that: “This is just a test for research right now”.

The company clarified in a reply to another user that it is a just research experiment.

“We want to better understand the types of replies you do and don’t find relevant in a convo,” Twitter Support said.

This isn't quite a dislike button. In this research experiment, the thumbs down icon is a down vote that lets us know that you think the reply isn’t relevant to the conversation. We want to better understand the types of replies you do and don't find relevant in a convo.

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 21, 2021

However, the social media platform has not said if this research will lead to a downvote feature being introduced at a later stage.

Feature image: Unsplash/Ravi Sharma

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