Twitter Returning Retweet Functionality Back to its Original State

Twitter has announced that retweet functionality will be returning to its original state following user feedback and lowered engagement.

Earlier this year, Twitter began incorporating Quote Tweets into the retweet functionality, making it the default when users wished to retweet. Quote Tweets enabled users to add their own comments to a tweet while sharing it. While Quote Tweets have always been popular on the social media platform, Twitter’s decision to make it the default brought mixed reactions.

Users were never forced into adding their own commentary to a tweet while retweeting. By design, Twitter wished to encourage users to add thoughtful amplification. However, the results were not as Twitter intended, making the social media platform rollback its decision.

Via the Twitter Support account, it’s been announced that retweet functionality will be brought back to its normal state.

After learning from this product experience, we’re sharing an update: today Retweet functionality will be returning to the way it was before.

Here’s what we saw while we prompted Quote Tweets (1/4): https://t.co/MzoDKy3d69

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 16, 2020

In a blog post, Twitter revealed that after making the change, the increase in context and thoughtful amplification was minimal. 45% of additional Quote Tweets only contained a single word. 70% of Quote Tweets contained less than 25 characters. There was also an overall 20% decrease in retweet/Quote Tweet use following the change.

Moving forward, users can simply retweet another user’s tweet without being encouraged to add their own commentary by default. The Quote Tweet option is still available. However, when retweeting, an option to choose the standard retweet or Quote Tweet now appears. Users can choose their preferences and take it from there.