Twitter Begins Testing ‘Downvote’ Button Globally To Improve Conversations
Twitter has announced it will be expanding its ‘downvote’ button test to users worldwide, having received “positive feedback” from its initial trials last year.
As before, the ‘downvote’ button is meant to allow users to provide feedback on the content they don’t wish to see in their feeds.
According to Engadget, the number of downvotes on a reply will not be visible to the public, and only the user will be able to view his or her downvote history.
From the first beta test, Twitter said a majority of users clicked the down arrow on a reply because it “was perceived as offensive, or because they perceived as not relevant, or both.”
As Pocket-lint notes, users are currently able to mute a conversation or mark it as spam, though it isn’t as convenient, as the options to do so are hidden behind dropdown menus.
Hence, the social media site believes the new feature will help improve conversations on the platform, as users can flag content they don’t wish to see, or find unhelpful to the topic of discussion.
“People who have tested downvoting agree it improves the quality of conversations on Twitter. We’re excited to see how others think of it as it becomes available to more of you,” says Twitter.
We learned a lot about the types of replies you don't find relevant and we're expanding this test –– more of you on web and soon iOS and Android will have the option to use reply downvoting.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 3, 2022
Downvotes aren’t public, but they'll help inform us of the content people want to see. https://t.co/g8LcTpQqDv pic.twitter.com/wm5MmdR4Xh
[via Engadget and Pocket-lint, cover image via Twitter Support]
