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Twitter testing quote tweet counts, formerly known as retweets with comments

Twitter testing quote tweet counts, formerly known as retweets with comments

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Whatever they’re called, this is really going to mess with the ratio

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The Twitter bird logo in white against a dark background with outlined logos around it and red circles rippling out from it.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In a move that may forever change what it means to be ratio’d, Twitter is testing some new language on tweet metrics, making quotes (also known as retweets with comments) visible on each tweet, the company confirmed Saturday.

“A few months ago, we’ve made Retweets with Comments more visible when you tap to see Retweets on a Tweet,” a Twitter spokesperson wrote in an email to The Verge. “This is available to everyone. Now, we’re testing making Retweets with Comments accessible directly on the Tweet and new language (Quotes) to see if this makes them easier to access and more understandable.”

A Verge reader tipped us to the feature’s new name, which lists the number of times a tweet is quoted alongside likes and retweets:

In May, Twitter tested the “Retweet with comments” counter with some iOS users, which listed the number next to a tweet’s “Likes” and “Retweets” tallies. It made it much easier to find quoted replies to a tweet.

Of course, Twitter has noodled with different user interface changes over the past few months that haven’t become permanent features; it tried an  ‘original tweeter’ label to highlight who started a conversation thread, a snooze feature for notifications, and an option to get notifications for replies to an individual tweet.

Twitter has previously said it’s refining its UI with an eye toward improving conversations among users. The company’s director of product management Suzanne Xie said in January at CES that Twitter was thinking about some of the less healthy interactions on the platform, such as “getting ratio’d, getting dunked on” when it introduced new updates.