Back in March this year, we came to know about Twitter's survey that it was conducting as part of a user experience study. Twitter wanted to test what type of emoji that a user would use while reacting to a tweet. Interestingly, there was an emoji reaction for a dislike/disagree opinion as well. Now, Twitter is officially announcing that it is testing different options to up or downvote on replies.
Thes testing has begun with a bunch of users on iOS only. Twitter wants to assess how users would use a downvote.
As evident in the image provided by Twitter Support, there are different illustrations to upvote and downvote a reply. For instance, an "arrow down" and a "thumbs down" for disagreeing/downvoting/ disliking a tweet report. This tells, Twitter is testing the best suitable representation for the dislike or disagree opinions of users.
Some key notes about this experiment:
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 21, 2021
1. This is just a test for research right now.
2. This is not a dislike button.
3. Your downvotes are visible to you only.
4. Votes won’t change the order of replies.
However, Twitter has made this pretty clear that this is mere testing for now and not available to everyone. Twitter has also explicitly mentioned that a downvote option shouldn't be considered as a Dislike button. Well, no matter how much Twitter denies it but this variation is indeed substituting the absence of a dislike button. Well, it might not have the same power that a possible Dislike button on Twitter would bring, but at least, it is filling the gaps for now.
While announcing the testing, Twitter has also explained that your downvotes are just visible to you, though the upvotes are visible as Likes. Also, votes won't change the order of replies.
It is worth noting that these up and downvotes are limited to replies to your tweet only and not to the tweet itself. This means if someone replies to your tweet, you can upvote or downvote them. Tweets you make will not have any upvote or downvote buttons.