Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter 2.0’ is increasingly looking like Twitter 1.0 with minor tweaks, with various elements like tweet view counts, up and downvotes, and subscriptions all tested at different times in the past, and all abandoned due to previous Twitter management finding no major value in them.
But that, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean that they were right, and maybe there is a way for Elon and his new team to rejuvenate these old proposals, repackage them as something new, and potentially even get people to pay for them as add-on features.
Seems we’ll find out, with Elon also, apparently, looking to add tweet reactions into the mix.
There definitely need to be more reactions
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 23, 2022
Which Twitter has also tried, several times, in the past.
The most recent tweet reactions experiment came in March last year, when Twitter sought user feedback on the potential of more emoji response options in addition to the Like ‘heart’ icon.
And there is some logic to that. Reactions have become a habitual response option for many people, because they’re now available in so many social and messaging apps. Twitter itself already has reactions in DMs, with six additional options available, in addition to the single ‘heart’ response that you can use in normal tweets.
And let’s face it, a ‘heart’ is not applicable in many situations – so maybe tweet reactions makes sense, and would be a good accompaniment, despite the option being shelved repeatedly by the previous Twitter team.
It does seem like Elon’s going to try it out, with most of the recommendations that he’s flagged in his tweets making it through to Twitter production thus far.
The most interesting aspect, then, will be to see whether that reaction set also includes ‘thumbs up’ and ‘thumbs down’ options, which Twitter has in DMs. Which could also become an interesting response, and potential ranking consideration.
Musk has already signaled that Twitter’s looking to factor more user response options into tweet ranking, with mute and hide actions set to limit tweet and user reach. Maybe, up and downvotes, even via reactions, could be another consideration – and really, if Musk wants Twitter to be a true reflection of the people’s voice, he should be looking to incorporate direct feedback response signals into the mix.
That’s a little harder on Twitter, given that the main feed updates in real-time, so you can’t always rank tweets based on user votes. But it could be a way to glean more feedback on what people want, and don’t want to see, overall, which could be another element in Musk’s broader reformation of the app.
Either way, it’s another element to consider. Potentially, if Elon and Co. actually roll it out.
