Twitter is testing upvote, downvote feature for tweets

Washington: Microblogging and social networking service Twitter is working on new upvote and downvote reactions for tweets to accompany the usual options for retweets and replies.

Twitter confirmed that it was testing the feature for a small group of users on iOS and that it's already been spotted, as per multiple tweets from users that are part of the test group. In its tweet, Twitter said that iOS users may see upvotes and downvotes in several different styles (up and down arrows, a heart icon and a down arrow, and thumbs up and thumbs down icons).

It also divulged that it's 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." Currently, votes are not public.

While Twitter didn't reveal if it plans to add up and down voting as a permanent feature (or how voting affects what you see in your feed), there are clear parallels to be drawn to Reddit, which features upvoting and downvoting as a way of surfacing a subreddit's favourite replies, responses, and posts. Twitter said that for now upvotes and downvotes don't impact the order of tweets.

The company has toyed with other kinds of tweet interactions in the past, including reactions that appeared to mimic the emoji reactions Facebook uses for its posts and Messenger messages.

As per The Verge, Twitter's product lead Kayvon Beykpour has also said that the company planned to work on dislikes last year, claiming the feature was one of Twitter's many "top priorities."