The US-based microblogging platform Twitter is working on a new upvote and downvote reactions feature for tweets to accompany the already existing retweet and reply options.
Twitter has confirmed that it was testing the new feature for a small group of users on iOS, and it’s already been spotted according to multiple tweets from users that are part of the test group.
Twitter has stated that iOS users may see upvotes and downvotes in several different styles such as up and down arrows, a heart icon and a down arrow, and thumbs up and thumbs down icons. The platform is testing the feature to “understand the types of replies you find relevant in a convo, so we can work on ways to show more of them,” it added. Currently, votes are not public.
While Twitter hasn’t said if it plans to add up and down voting as a permanent feature or how voting affects what users see in their feed, the feature has significant similarities with Reddit, which features upvoting and downvoting as a way of surfacing a subreddit’s favorite replies, responses, and posts. Twitter says that for now though upvotes and downvotes don’t impact the order of tweets.
In the past, Twitter had worked on different kinds of tweet interactions, including reactions that appeared to mimic the emoji reactions Facebook uses for Facebook posts and Messenger messages.
Twitter’s product lead Mr. Kayvon Beykpour has also confirmed that the company planned to work on dislikes last year, claiming the feature was one of Twitter’s many “top priorities” in response to a user’s tweet.
