Twitter’s new “quote tweet with reaction” feature | Image: Twitter
Twitter has announced that it’s testing a feature called “quote tweet with reaction,” where you can embed a copy of a tweet into a photo or video instead of just replying to it with text.
Twitter says that the feature is currently being tested on iOS. If you have access to the feature, the retweet menu will have a “Quote Tweet with reaction” button. Tapping it will take you to a screen where you can take a photo or video to put the tweet on top of, or choose one from your camera roll. One of Twitter’s product leads did a reaction quote tweet to the announcement, which lets us see how the reactions will show up to users.
Tweet reaction videos can now start on Twitter!
Testing on iOS: when you tap the Retweet icon, choose “Quote Tweet with reaction” to create and customize your very own Tweet Take –– a reaction video (or photo) with the Tweet embedded. pic.twitter.com/1E30F8rKYh
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) January 6, 2022
The process of creating a reaction to a tweet.
The feature is similar to TikTok’s video replies, which Instagram recently copied for its Reels feature. Twitter itself has also been adding new ways to share tweets — in December 2020, it added the ability to embed a tweet in a Snapchat message or story.
Some Twitter users, as well as staff members at The Verge, have expressed concern that these reaction quote tweets could be an easy vector for harassment. While it’s relatively easy for the platform to moderate regular quote tweets, it’s harder to programmatically scan the contents of a photo or video. It’s also not clear whether you’ll be able to opt out from reaction tweets like you can with Twitter’s photo-tagging feature or limit who’s able to react to your tweets like you can with replies.
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s question about the ability to change who could react to your tweet.