X may be testing a way for iPhone users to dislike posts on the platform

X (formerly Twitter) may be testing a new feature aimed at increasing engagement on the platform by allowing users to downvote posts on iPhone. According to claims on social media, the feature may appear as a “dislike” option in the form of a broken heart icon, rather than a Reddit-esque down arrow. The experiment was first reported in 2021, and a recent discovery of code references related to the feature hints at ongoing testing.

Dislike button on X

According to a after on the microblogging platform by user @aaronp613, the ability to dislike posts could soon be introduced on the X app for the iOS platform. Code references have reportedly been discovered, which point to a broken-emoji-style icon for dislikes, similar to the like option that appears as a heart icon.

Text strings also seem to appear in the app’s code. According to the user, one of the strings reads: “Do you want to downvote this post?”, while another string is simply presented as “Downvote this post”. However, it is unclear whether the ability to downvote would be available for both posts and comments or just the former, as the code only mentions “posts”.

X – back when it was Twitter – first announced that it would test a downvote feature on iOS in 2021. It was reported as part of a “small research experiment” that added upvote and downvote options to comments. The microblogging platform confirmed that downvotes were not public, while likes could be seen by everyone, until an update last month made them hidden.

It is interesting that another user @P4mui Posted a video clip of the alleged downvoting option in operation. However, the clip suggests that the option only applies to comments and not to posts on the microblogging platform.

Hidden Likes

In addition to a rumored ‘dislikes’ feature, Elon Musk’s X recently decided to hide ‘likes’ on the platform. This means that posts that are liked by a user will not be visible on their profile under the I like this tab. As a result, the entire section has been removed. It is just one of many changes that have been implemented on the microblogging platform since Elon Musk took over in 2022.