Twitter has started a new feature test on the social networking app for iOS. Only available to a small number of users, the function is very reminiscent of one of the more traditional Reddit functions.
The novelty takes the place of “Like”, a reaction with a heart-shaped icon. Instead, users can rate the post positively or negatively, with green and red arrows respectively.
At least for now, the test doesn’t indicate what happens to posts that garner a lot of votes from either side, but that might affect the visibility of popular or criticized tweets. “We’re doing this quiz to understand the types of responses you think are relevant in a conversation, so we can work on ways to show more of them,” explains the social network.
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
Twitter also pointed out that negative votes are not public, but positive clicks will be displayed in the original form of likes.
For now, there’s no prediction that the feature will be expanded testing or actually implemented — Twitter runs several simultaneous experiments with different results from the community.
