About conversations on X

Conversations are happening all the time on X—and it all starts with just one reply to a post.

Popular conversations are easy to find and join. We show you the most interesting content first, and when you join in, you will have the full character limit to craft your reply with. Below we’ve outlined some basics about conversations on X, and how best to participate in them.

Replies in conversations
 

A reply is a response to another post, and is one of the easiest ways to join in a conversation as it’s happening on X. 

When you reply to a post, you can see the full list of participant usernames in the conversation by clicking or tapping the prompt above the post. Usernames will not automatically be added to the beginning of the reply, giving you all available characters to use in your response.

How to post a reply
  1. Find the post you want to reply to.
  2. Click or tap the reply icon 
    Note: A composer screen will pop up, where you will see the name of the person(s) you are directly replying to.
  3. Type in your message and click or tap Reply to post it.
 
Choose who can reply to your post

When you start a new post, you can choose who will be able to reply to it. You’ll see a default setting of Everyone can reply next to a globe icon in the compose post box. Clicking or tapping this prior to posting your post allows you to choose who can reply to you. 

To help minimize unwanted replies and improve meaningful conversations, you’ll also be able to change who can reply to your post midway through a conversation.

How to adjust your conversation settings
  1. From X.com or the X for iOS or Android app, tap on the compose post button.
  2. Click or tap Everyone can reply next to the globe icon to choose who can reply to your post. 
    • Everyone -- this is the current default option. For public accounts, it means that everyone will continue to be able to reply. If your posts are protected, it means only people who follow you will continue to be able to reply.
    • Accounts you follow -- only accounts who you follow, as well as anyone you mention in the post, will be able to reply.
    • Only accounts you mention -- only accounts who you mention in the post will be able to reply.
    • Only verified accounts -- only accounts which are verified, as well as anyone you mention in the post, will be able to reply.
  3. When you’re ready, click or tap post to send.
  4. After you post, you can change who replies by navigating to the top right of the post and tapping the More  icon. 
  5. Tap Change who can reply from the list of options. 
  6. Select who you’d like to reply to your post.
A few things to note:
  • When your post is live, people will see that you’ve limited who can reply to your post.
  • When you’ve invited certain people to reply, they will see a line of context right below the post from their Home timeline letting them know that they (and anyone else selected) can reply and join the conversation. They will also receive a mention push notification if they have that setting on.
  • Restrictions you place on your posts will only apply to the ability for others to reply to your post. Others can still engage with your post by, for example, liking or Reposting it, or voting on a poll you include in your post.
  • Once you’ve published a post, you can manage your conversations by changing who replies to your post or deleting the original post. Replies and Reposts of your post will inherit the restrictions you placed on the root post, but Quote posts will not inherit your restrictions. 
  • If a post is deleted, Reposts will also be deleted and  replies will lose any previous restrictions. 
  • If you deactivate your account, any reply restrictions your posts currently have will lift, and if you reactivate your account during the reactivation window, all previous reply restrictions will be reapplied. However, during the window when your reply restrictions were lifted, it’s possible that replies that would have otherwise been restricted could have been added to your conversation. 


Who am I replying to?
 

From the compose screen, you can see the people in the conversation you will reply to. Click or tap Replying to… to bring up an editing screen with a list of everyone who is a part of the conversation.
 

Reply editing screen basics:

  • Up to 50 people who are in the conversation will be displayed. 
  • Adding people: To add additional people to a conversation, swipe down to close the editing screen, and then simply type their username into your post. A manually-typed username in the text box will count towards your character limit.
  • Removing people: The people listed on the editing screen can be removed (except for the author of the original post to whom you are directly replying). To remove people from the conversation in the editing screen, simply click or tap on the checkmark icon  to deselect participants. Once someone is unselected, the checkmark icon will be unchecked.
  • Blocked accounts: Accounts you have blocked will be visible to you in the recipient list, and will indicate that you have blocked them. From the editing screen, you can choose to remove the blocked account from the conversation by clicking or tapping on the checkmark icon  Blocked accounts will not know you have removed them from the conversation and that you won’t see their replies.
    • Note: If an account you have blocked visits your profile, they will see a message alerting them of the block.

Note: If your posts are not protected, then all replies are public, but only relevant people, such as those who follow you and someone who is part of the conversation, will see your reply in their Home timeline, even if you begin your reply with “.@”. If you would like all of your followers to see your reply, the best way to do so is by Reposting or Quote post.

Read more about replies and mentions and types of posts for more information.

 

Notifications for conversations
 

When you receive a notification for a conversation, it will indicate whether it is a reply or a mention:

  • If your username appears within the body of a post, you will receive a mention notification.
  • When someone replies to you, you will receive a reply notification.
  • When you receive a notification, click or tap on it to view the conversation and who else is participating in it.
     

Who is a part of the conversation?

You can also view participants of a conversation from posts you see in your Home timeline, profile page, notifications, or from a post detail. To view participants’ names, bio, and @usernames:

  1. Click or tap Replying to...
  2. From here you can see everyone who is included in this reply. You can also follow or unfollow people in this list.

Note: An account that you have blocked will still be visible to you in the list of people in the conversation, indicating they are blocked, but without their profile information displayed. You may choose to unblock them from this list by tapping on the blocked icon 

Conversation ranking
 

You may notice that some replies in a conversation are not shown in chronological order. Replies are grouped by sub-conversations because we strive to show you the content that we think you’d be most interested in and contributes to the conversation in a meaningful way, such as content that is relevant, credible, and safe. For example, when ranking a reply higher, we consider factors such as if the original post author has replied, if a reply is from someone you follow, or if the person is a X Premium subscriber.

 

Direct reply count
 

Just like you can see the total number of likes and Reposts for any post, you can also see how many people are participating in the conversation by the reply count. You’ll see a number next to the reply icon  indicating how many direct replies the original post has received. This number is not the total number of replies in the entire conversation.

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