By Allowing Some iOS Users To Respond With An Up Or Down Vote, Twitter Is Conducting Research On Replies

Developers appear to be tuned in to what Twitter users want, as evidenced by their latest updates and initiatives! Twitter introduced captions for voice tweets about a week ago, citing user feedback and making the change “to improve accessibility features.” Now, the social media app has revealed that it is testing up and down votes as a means to respond to tweet replies. Twitter Support said, “We’re trying this to understand the types of replies you find relevant in a conversation so we can work on ways to show more of them.”

However, before users get too enthusiastic about using the function, Twitter has noted that it is currently “only a research test.” This also means that the new feature is only available to a select group of people, namely iOS users. Furthermore, the reaction can only be applied to replies to a tweet, not the original tweet. The votes will have no effect on the order of answers in a tweet. Think again if you’re expecting your down vote to be seen! The functionality is solely visible to the user’s account, however up votes are available to other users as likes. And Twitter is certain that the function isn’t mistaken for a dislike button, stating that it’s “not a dislike button.”

While Twitter is heading in the direction of expanding functionality, it has also lately kicked some users off the network. They said last week that fleets will be unavailable after August 3 because they’re “ready to explore alternative methods users can share on Twitter.” Fleets was a tool that let users to exchange multimedia files that vanished after 24 hours, as you may remember. “We had intended for Fleets to make it easier for others to join the conversation in a low-pressure approach, but it turns out that Fleets were primarily used by those who Tweeted the most,” Twitter Support explained.