Elon Musk says Twitter view count will soon be optional

Twitter recently rolled out a feature that allows users to see a real-time measurement of engagement on their tweets. Or so that was the intension.

As with many new things on Twitter, Elon Musk has become its CEO, it was met with mixed reactions.

Now, Musk has tweeted that Twitter will “tidy up the esthetics & add a setting to turn it off, but I think everyone will grow to like it.”

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The feature was introduced on Dec. 22, with Musk saying that it would make Twitter more “alive” than it was previously. He added that while likes and retweets are more public-facing, views are passive.

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Some did like this feature, such as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, who responded, “Great. Much better metric.”

But others weren’t so forgiving, with some Twitter users referring to it as useless and unhealthy. One user called it “too messy,” which prompted Musk’s response about adding a setting to turn it off.

As of Dec. 27, there still isn’t a way to disable the feature.

Which tweets show view counts?

Pretty much all tweets show view counts with three exceptions, according to the Twitter Help Center:

• Community tweets

• Twitter Circle tweets

• Older tweets

Twitter communities are groups of users with shared interests, similar to Facebook Groups, while Twitter Circles are set up by users as a “friends list.”