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It is common for social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to borrow features from each other. But rarely do we get to hear about ideas copied from Reddit and Twitter seems to be the first.
The microblogging site is currently working on new upvote and downvote reactions for tweets. This is set to accompany the already existing options that users have. The development was confirmed by Twitter as testing has already begun for a select group of iOS users. As reported by The Verge, the reactions have been spotted from users that are part of the beta group.
According to Twitter, iOS users could start seeing upvotes and downvotes in various styles. This includes up and down arrows, a heart icon and a down arrow, and thumbs up and thumbs down icons. The company states that feature testing is mainly aimed at understanding the types of replies users find relevant in a conversation. As it stands, the vote reactions are not public.
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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
It is not clear yet whether the features will be made permanent. However, there are obvious signs that draw this back to Reddit that uses upvoting and downvoting as reactions to posts. Twitter says that for now though upvotes and downvotes don’t impact the order of tweets.
The platform has been testing other ways for users to interact with tweets including the Facebook-like emoji buttons. So, it is just a matter of time before one of these methods becomes official. Twitter’s product lead Kayvon Beykpour added that the firm has been planning to work on dislikes, a feature that has been on Twitter’s priority list since last year.
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