Twitter Is Testing “Upvote” or “Downvote” Features On Replies

Yesterday, there was so much anxiety on Twitter when some users saw certain tweets that had the Reddit-style ‘Upvotes’ and ‘Downvotes’ features which they assumed was for rating tweets and replies. 

The above tweet indeed confirms that Twitter is testing the use of Reddit-like upvote and downvote buttons. However, the Social site is seeking a better way to recommend more interesting and relevant replies in a longer conversation thread. 

Hence the Social Media platform is hoping to better understand what its users believe to be relevant replies, and how they match up to what the company is suggesting as most the relevant replies under a Tweet. 

This is what we found out after much studies into what Twitter hopes to achieve with this new test on iOS.  

As you can see in the image above, Twitter is testing various design options for this new feature, including upvote and downvote buttons, likes and dislikes, and pairing the classic heart with a downvote. Again, it is important to remember that this is a test and no information will be provided for public view. 

Twitter specifically mentioned that it is not currently using this vote information to rank the replies at this time. Therefore, it is important to note that voting is limited to replies to tweets, not to the original tweet. Twitter notes that the vote will only be displayed to the person who tweeted, and that the vote doesn’t change the order of replies, as it does on other platforms, including Quora and Reddit.

The Company also said the feature is currently in a test for research and has not yet confirmed release. Twitter has made it clear that this button is not a Dislike button. 

Currently, only YouTube has a Dislike button that displays the number of likes and dislikes for a video, while platforms like Reddit and Quora have up / down vote buttons. No other social media app, including Facebook or Instagram, has considered the idea of adding a Dislike button. The Dislike button on YouTube is visible to everyone, but Twitter doesn’t want the vote to be negative. It’s not clear why they are adding this new feature, but Twitter says in the review that you need to understand what types of responses it thinks are appropriate