Twitter/X to remove retweet & reply buttons in new shakeup
PexelsElon Musk has confirmed another big change is coming to the social media app X, this time with the removal of interaction buttons.
Researcher Aaron Perris discovered that a drastic design change was afoot over at X/Twitter. This change would see the Like, Repost, and Reply buttons removed from individual posts.
Since Perris reported the discovery, Elon Musk has confirmed that the change is coming, and further specified that users would need to use gesture controls to interact with posts. “Just swipe left to like and right to reply,” Musk said in reply to a user who criticized the decision, “It’s awesome.”
In addition to the removal of interaction buttons, statistics on the repost, like, and reply counts will also be removed from individual posts. The only metric that will remain visible is view count, which will be moved to the top right-hand corner.
The upcoming change has been met with dismay by certain users. Many replies and reposts have seen users begging for the decision to be reversed. Even paid “Blue Tick” users such as @MoonOverlord and @Netcapgirl said, “No one wants this,” in response to Musk’s post.
Musk’s post enthusing about the change received over 3000 replies, with many criticizing the change. An informal poll in the reply thread displayed a 92% majority of users against the removal of interaction buttons.
This move will follow a change last month which made ‘Likes’ on a post private. Prior to the change, users were able to click on the like count to see a list of users who liked the post. Now only the user who originally made the post can see the list of likes.
iOS users are rumored to have the option to long-press a post for additional context menus for interaction. It remains unclear how this change would affect users who interact with X on PC.