By Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, is advancing the development of a downvoting feature aimed at improving reply ranking. Although the company has not made an official announcement, recent findings suggest the downvote feature might resemble a “dislike” button rather than a Reddit-style downvote icon.
Code references discovered in the X iOS app reveal a button designed as a broken heart icon placed next to X’s heart-shaped “like” button. Direct references to a “downvote” feature have also been identified.
In 2021, Twitter experimented with downvoting prior to Elon Musk’s acquisition. During the original test, Twitter tried both upvoting and downvoting across all posts. The current tests indicate that X is considering enabling downvotes only on replies.
This feature aims to highlight better replies at the top of long threads while moving less-liked replies further down, potentially discouraging users from posting content meant to provoke anger and generate dislikes as engagement.
Earlier this month, reverse engineer Aaron Perris, known as @aaronp613 on X, found references in the X iOS app pointing to a developing downvote feature. Perris has now discovered additional image files suggesting the button could be styled as a broken heart, alongside more direct references to the feature itself.
Screenshots shared by Perris on X show newly added references to a “downvoting” function and text strings prompting users to confirm their downvote. One prompt reads, “Do you want to downvote this post?” while another instructs, “Downvote this post.” This wording, which mentions “posts” and not just “replies,” raises questions about whether X plans to extend the downvote feature to all posts or restrict it to replies.
The dislike button was also reportedly seen on an X employee’s account in a video demo showcasing a new way to expand replies. The post was quickly deleted and reposted without the dislike button visible.
Given the increasing sightings, it appears likely that more public tests of a dislike button are in progress.
This development is not the only change X has made to its “likes” system under Musk’s ownership. Recently, X began hiding likes from public view, allowing users to like more “edgy” content without affecting their public image, as Musk described.
For now, the future of the downvoting feature remains uncertain, but it continues to be a significant focus of development for X.
