Who Sees X Hidden Replies, and What Happens When Yours Gets Hidden

The setting behind X hidden replies is Hide replies, which lets the author of a post move any reply to it behind a hidden reply icon, where every viewer can still open it with one extra click. X's help article About replies and mentions puts it this way: "Post authors have the option to hide replies to their posts. Everyone can still access hidden replies through the hidden reply icon, which shows up on the original post when there are hidden replies." If you reply by hand to posts about your product, check that icon before you assume your reply, or someone else's, is gone.

What are X hidden replies?

X hidden replies are replies the original poster has moved out of the main conversation view without deleting them. The reply still exists and anyone can read it. It just stops showing under the post until a viewer taps the hidden reply icon.

Three facts from X's help article set the limits:

• The author can reverse it. "The post author can unhide a reply at any time."
• Nobody is told. "When a post author hides a reply, the author of the reply will not be notified."
• It works on three surfaces. The feature runs on X for iOS, X for Android and x.com, and "is not available on X Pro."

Who can hide replies on X?

Only the author of the original post can hide replies to it. X's developer docs state the same rule for apps: "You can only hide replies to conversations started by the authenticated user." Nobody can hide replies on someone else's post, and replying to a thread gives you no power over the other replies in it.

The steps in X's help article are short:

1. From a reply to one of your posts, open the menu icon on that reply.
2. Select Hide reply and confirm.
3. To review what you hid, tap the hidden reply icon in the bottom-right of your original post.
4. To reverse it, open that icon, open the menu icon on the reply and select Unhide reply.

How do viewers see hidden replies?

Viewers see hidden replies by tapping the hidden reply icon, which X shows in the bottom-right of the original post only when that post has hidden replies. X's Hide Replies quickstart describes the same thing from the API side: "The reply is now hidden from the main conversation view. Users can still see it by clicking 'View hidden replies.'"

Three cases limit access to a hidden reply:

• Protected accounts. "Hidden replies from a protected account will not be available within the hidden replies page."
• Deleted replies. If the reply's author deletes it, it disappears from the page.
• Mutes and blocks. "If you hide a reply and that account mutes or blocks you, you'll be unable to view or unhide that reply."

Hidden replies can still get answers. X says another account can reply to a hidden reply from the hidden reply page. When that happens, the hidden reply is "replaced by a notice, which is a message stating the post is unavailable," in the Home timeline. If no one replies to it, no notice appears.

What changes when an author hides a reply

Before hiding

• The reply shows in the main conversation
• Anyone reading the post sees it without extra taps

After hiding

• The reply sits behind the hidden reply icon
• Anyone can still open it with one extra click
• The replier gets no notification
• The author can unhide it at any time

What does the replier see when their reply is hidden?

The replier gets no notification. X's help article confirms that and says nothing about any label on the reply in its author's own view. X documents no signal at all for the replier, so the only way to know is to check.

To check whether X has hidden your reply:

1. Open the original post from a second account, or ask someone else to open it.
2. Look for your reply in the conversation.
3. If it is missing, tap the hidden reply icon in the bottom-right of the post.
4. If your reply is there, the author hid it. If it is not there either, scroll the full conversation and tap "Show probable spam" if X shows that button.

A hidden reply is a choice by one post author about one conversation. X's help article describes no effect on your account or on your replies anywhere else.

How is hiding different from X's other reply controls?

Hiding is one of four ways a reply ends up out of view, and each has a different owner and a different way back.

Control	Who decides	What viewers see	How to see the reply
Hide reply	The original post author	The reply moves behind the hidden reply icon	Tap the icon on the original post
Show probable spam	X's systems	Replies X labels "potentially lower quality and spam" collapse	Tap "Show probable spam"
Reply ranking	X's systems	Replies appear out of time order	Scroll the conversation
Who can reply	The original post author	Only allowed accounts can reply at all	Not applicable

X says the probable spam label rests on "factors such as the author's previous behavior and the content of the reply." For ranking, it considers "if the original post author has replied, if a reply is from someone you follow, or if the person is a X Premium subscriber." The reply limit shows up in the API as the reply_settings field, with the options "everyone", "mentioned_users" and "followers". A post can also carry a note from contributors, covered in X Community Notes, which the post author cannot remove.

How does the X API v2 hide replies endpoint work?

The X API v2 hide replies endpoint is PUT /2/tweets/:tweet_id/hidden. You send the ID of the reply, not the original post, with a JSON body of {"hidden": true} to hide it or {"hidden": false} to unhide it. The response returns {"data": {"hidden": true}} or false. X's Hide reply reference describes the call as one that "Hides or unhides a reply to a conversation owned by the authenticated user."

Item	Value
Method and path	PUT https://api.x.com/2/tweets/{tweet_id}/hidden
Body	hidden, a required boolean
OAuth 2.0 scopes	tweet.read, tweet.moderate.write, users.read
Other auth	OAuth 1.0a user token
Rate limit	50 requests per 15 minutes per user, no app-only limit
Who it works for	Replies to conversations the authenticated user started

X's scope list describes tweet.moderate.write as "Hide and unhide replies to your posts." The rate limit comes from X's rate limits page, which lists no per-app figure because the call needs a user token. X's developer docs moved from developer.x.com to docs.x.com, and old developer.x.com links now redirect there. For the limits on the read endpoints you would pair it with, see Twitter API rate limits.

What do hidden replies mean when you monitor replies on X?

Hidden replies mean a reply you catch through search or the API can later disappear from the conversation view with no sign in the data. X's data dictionary lists the Post fields, including conversation_id, in_reply_to_user_id and reply_settings, and none of them marks a reply as hidden. X's docs also never say whether hidden replies drop out of search results or conversation_id: queries, the operator described in X advanced search operators.

That leaves four working rules for someone replying by hand:

• Read the conversation, not just the match. Before you answer a reply about your product, open the original post and tap the hidden reply icon. A hidden branch is a part of the thread that the post author chose to move out of view.
• Answer the post author's question. Only the author can hide your reply, so a reply that helps them gives them no reason to hide it.
• Do not repost a hidden reply. The author hid it once and can hide the copy the same way.
• On your own posts, hide sparingly. A hidden complaint stays one tap away, so a public answer does more than hiding it. The Twitter social listening guide covers how to answer criticism in public.

How does RedReplier handle X replies?

RedReplier searches new X posts for your keywords every 6 hours, leaves out replies and reposts, and puts the matches into one column ranked by buyer intent, alongside matches from Reddit, Bluesky, Facebook and Hacker News. Matches land on your RedReplier dashboard after each search, and email alerts go out as digests on a cadence you set per keyword, from hourly to daily. RedReplier drafts a reply for each match and never posts it for you, so you review, edit and post every reply yourself, after checking the thread for hidden replies. The Twitter monitoring page shows how it works.

Frequently asked questions

Can anyone see hidden replies on X?

Yes. Anyone viewing the post can tap the hidden reply icon in the bottom-right of the original post to read them. The exceptions are hidden replies from protected accounts and replies their authors have deleted.

Does X notify you when your reply is hidden?

No. X's help article says "the author of the reply will not be notified." To check, open the original post from another account and look behind the hidden reply icon.

Can you hide replies on someone else's post?

No. Only the author of the original post can hide replies to it. The API applies the same rule and accepts the call only for conversations the authenticated user started.

Can you unhide a reply on X?

Yes. Tap the hidden reply icon on your post, open the menu on the reply and select Unhide reply. If that account has since muted or blocked you, you can no longer see or unhide it.

Is a hidden reply the same as a shadowban?

No. A hidden reply is one post author's choice about one conversation, and X describes no effect on your replies elsewhere. It is also separate from X's "Show probable spam" button, which X's own systems control.

What is the API endpoint for hiding replies on X?

The endpoint is PUT /2/tweets/:tweet_id/hidden with the body {"hidden": true} or {"hidden": false}. It needs a user token with the tweet.moderate.write scope and allows 50 requests per 15 minutes per user.

Does hiding a reply delete it?

Hiding a reply does not delete it. X only moves the reply behind the hidden reply icon, and the post author can unhide it at any time. A reply is gone only when its own author deletes it.

Where is the hidden reply icon on X?

The icon sits in the bottom-right of the original post. X shows it only when that post has hidden replies, so a post without the icon has none.

Does Hide replies work on X Pro?

The feature is not available on X Pro. It runs on X for iOS, X for Android and x.com.

Can a monitoring tool tell when a reply is hidden?

Not from the data X documents. The Post object has no field that marks a reply as hidden, and X does not say whether hidden replies drop out of search results. Before you answer a reply by hand, open the original post and tap the hidden reply icon yourself.