Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, is working on a downvoting feature to improve reply rankings. Although the company hasn’t officially announced its plans, recent findings suggest the downvote feature may resemble a “dislike” button rather than a traditional downvote icon. Code references found in the X iOS app now show a button that appears as a broken heart icon next to X’s heart-shaped “like” button, along with direct references to a “downvote” feature.
As Twitter, the company tested downvoting in 2021, before Musk’s acquisition. During the original experiment, Twitter tested both upvoting and downvoting buttons across all posts. The latest tests indicate that X is considering allowing downvotes only on replies to highlight better responses and push less-liked replies further down the thread. This could deter users from posting content meant to provoke anger and generate dislikes as engagement.
Earlier this month, reverse engineer Aaron Perris, @aaronp613 on X, found references in X’s iOS app indicating a downvote feature in development. He has since found additional image files suggesting the button could be styled as a broken heart, along with more direct references to the feature itself.
“The ability to dislike posts is coming to the X for iOS app as well,” Perris tweeted, sharing screenshots that show newly added references to a “downvoting” function and prompts asking users to confirm their downvotes. For example, one reads “Do you want to downvote this post?” while another simply instructs users to “Downvote this post.”
The wording of these prompts, which references “posts” and not just “replies,” raises questions about whether X is considering bringing a downvote feature to all posts on the platform or just replies.
Another user, @P4mui on X, shared videos of the dislike button in action, including one where a user asked them to dislike their reply to a post. The user, who had enabled the dislike button using a feature flag, noted that the button was currently only available on replies, but it was unclear if this would change later.
“The new dislike button in action (internally called downvote) is currently only planned for replies,” tweeted @P4mui.
The dislike button was also reportedly seen on an X employee’s account, who shared a video demo of a new way to expand replies. That post was quickly deleted and reposted without the dislike button visible.
Given the increasing number of sightings, it appears likely that more public tests of a dislike button are imminent.
This isn’t the only change X has made to its “likes” system under Musk’s ownership. Recently, X began hiding likes from public view, allowing people, as Musk put it, to like more “edgy” content without affecting their image.
