Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), is working on a way for users to flag unhelpful replies. While not officially confirmed, recent updates to the X iOS app suggest a downvote button might be in the works.
This button appears as a broken heart icon, sitting alongside the existing heart-shaped “like” button. Code references within the app also point to a “downvote” feature. This suggests X might be implementing a system to rank replies based on user feedback, with downvotes potentially pushing less valuable comments down the thread.
X isn’t new to the idea of a “dislike” button. Back in 2021, before Elon Musk took over, they tested both “like” and “dislike” options for all posts. However, that experiment was put on hold.
Now, under Musk’s leadership, it seems the dislike button might be making a comeback. One potential benefit of this approach is that it could discourage users from posting inflammatory content solely to provoke negative reactions and rack up downvotes.
A reverse engineer on X, Aaron Perris (username @aaronp613), discovered more clues about a potential downvote feature hidden within the platform’s iOS app. Earlier this month, he spotted code hinting at this feature.
Now, Perris has unearthed additional image files suggesting a broken heart icon might represent the downvote button. Furthermore, he found clearer references to the feature itself.
Perris shared screenshots on X showcasing the app now containing text asking users to confirm a downvote. Examples include “Do you want to downvote this post?” and “Downvote this post.” The wording mentioning “posts” instead of just “replies” raises questions about whether X is considering downvotes for all content or just replies.