Reactions and downvotes are coming to Twitter

Two more new features are coming to Twitter that closes a year full of changes: downvotes and reactions to other users' tweets are about to arrive

It had been in the air for a while, with the first tests started a couple of months ago, but now it would seem that we're really there: reactions to tweets are about to arrive on Twitter, a new way of "reacting" to a message posted by a user of the social, which goes beyond the classic little heart. A "reverse engineer" discovered it.

That is a software developer, specifically the young Iranian Nima Owji, who looked inside the code of the Twitter app for iOS and found all the references to this new feature. New but, apparently, already ready: there are already the icons of each of the four new possible reactions (which become five with the heart, which remains available). This doesn't mean, however, that reactions will necessarily arrive immediately: it's not uncommon to find references to new features in apps that don't arrive or arrive much later. However, in the specific case of reactions on Twitter, it should also be remembered that the first signs of this feature were discovered in September and that, among other things, 2021 was a year full of changes for Twitter.

How are reactions on Twitter

In the Twitter code for iOS, therefore, there are already five possible reactions: three "little faces", two hands clapping and a classic heart. The three faces express as many moods: one is thoughtful, the other sad, the last one laughs until tears. Applause and heart need no explanation.

To use a reaction it is necessary to hold down the heart: a pop-up will appear with all the available reactions.

Twitter: negative votes have also arrived

In addition to reactions, then, the Iranian developer has also found a trace of "downvotes". That is, the negative votes, the thumbs down. In this case, the icon is an arrow pointing down, positioned just before the icon of the little heart.

Between other things, always in the code of the iOS app, there is also an explanation of how downvotes work: they are private. Basically, Twitter asks us to express our disapproval on a tweet in order not to show us other similar tweets. Neither the author of the tweet nor other Twitter users will see our downvote and there will be no downvotes counter.