The latter two reply sorting options are pretty straightforward. “Most recent” shows replies in chronological order from newest to oldest. “Most liked” shows the replies with most likes first. Blue check accounts appear to have completely lost any advantage that the paid subscription provided them when selecting either of these two menu options.
It’s unclear exactly how X is determining how to sort posts via the “most relevant” option. However, it appears to be the same sorting method as the previous default. Blue checks do still appear to be prioritized in this view.
Any user can change the reply sorting options on any post that they view, not just their own posts.
Matt Binder
I’ve noticed this change a few days before this article, first on the Twitter web site, later in the Android app as well. Slightly impressive that the company is now shipping features simultaneously on the web and in its apps, whereas for years the standard for most tech giants was to test and launch features on iOS first, with the web and Android distant seconds. A lack of polish is however manifest in small details like different labels for the choices on the web and in apps (in the Android app, ‘Most relevant’ is called ‘Trending replies’). Unfortunately, this new feature is per post rather than saved globally on your account, meaning you can’t (yet?) choose your preferred reply sorting setting and have it automatically applied on each reply section, instead you need to switch modes on each new tweet.
The move has amusing implications for Twitter subscribers, who until now (thanks to an earlier Musk decision) enjoyed preferential placement in replies. That advantage is gone now when people choose anything other than ‘most relevant’. The fact that you can’t fully commit to one of the new reply sorting options via a global setting may reflect a calculus to balance keeping ‘blue checks’ happy with their subscription benefits versus keeping the rest of the user base happy by allowing them more control over ranking. Then again, I wouldn’t give Musk the credit for thinking that far ahead.
This new feature does resemble Reddit’s comment sorting a lot, and to some extent Facebook’s comments. Ironic that Elon Musk, for all his malign addiction to Twitter, is apparently working towards erasing its differentiating factors and slowly turn it into a generic social media app.
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