# How does Twitter decide which replies to show under a tweet?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-twitter-decide-which-replies-to-show-under-a-tweet/655521>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 12, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-twitter-decide-which-replies-to-show-under-a-tweet/655521 "2013-04-12T16:53:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-twitter-decide-which-replies-to-show-under-a-tweet/655521/1 "2013-04-12T16:53:48Z")

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Say I am following @person\_A.

I (let’s call me @me) reply to one of their tweets (starting the message with @person\_A).

I can now see my reply threaded beneath their original tweet, along with other replies to them from people who I don’t follow.

However, when I look at the same feed using a different account (let’s call it @pseudonym), which is following @person\_A but not following @me, the reply I made using the @me account is not visible, even though replies from other people who @pseudonym is not following _are_ visible.

Why is this? Why are these other people that I am not following deemed to be important enough to display, but not @me? Is there some kind of hidden ranking system at play here, or does Twitter just display things at random?

I did wonder whether it was only showing replies that @person\_A had also responded to, but that’s not the case: some people I don’t follow show up even when they haven’t been responded to.  
NB I’m using the iOS Twitter app, if that makes a difference.

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-twitter-decide-which-replies-to-show-under-a-tweet/655521/2 "2013-04-13T14:55:26Z")

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No clues?

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**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-twitter-decide-which-replies-to-show-under-a-tweet/655521/3 "2013-04-13T15:05:42Z")

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> [@Colophon](#):
>
> No clues?

On my normal feed (using Seesmic, Hootsuite) I just see conversations between people that I follow, but it is possible to see more than that with just a string search on @username. Perhaps the app you are using is a bit more flexible about what it allows in your feed?

/wag