Replies on X
“Show probable spam” on X (Twitter): what it means and how to keep your replies out
What sits behind the Show probable spam button on X, what X says puts a reply there, and how to keep your own replies in the main thread.
Short answer: “Show probable spam” is a button at the end of the replies under a post on X (Twitter). Behind it, X puts the replies it sees as “potentially lower quality and spam”, judged by what the reply says and by how its author has behaved before. Almost nobody opens it, so a reply in there gets close to no views. To keep yours out, reply about the post itself, slow down, and never send the same reply to many people.
What the “Show probable spam” button is
Open any busy post on X and scroll through the replies. X lists them by how much it thinks they add, and at the very end you may find a button that says Show probable spam. Press it and a second list opens: the replies X decided most people shouldn’t have to read.
X explains the button in its Help Center:
This button reveals replies that are identified as potentially lower quality and spam, based on factors such as the author’s previous behavior and the content of the reply.
Two things decide it, then: what your reply says, and what your account has been doing. A perfectly good reply can still land there when the account behind it has been replying in a way X reads as spam.
The same page says what pushes a reply up instead. X ranks replies by whether they are “relevant, credible, and safe”, and gives a lift to a reply when the post’s author has answered it, when the reader follows its author, or when its author pays for X Premium.
Why your replies end up there
We’ve had our own replies land behind that button more than once. Looking back, it came down to two things: replies with nothing in them, and too many replies too fast. Here is everything we know that can put a reply there, each tied to X’s own rules.
The reply could sit under any post
“Great thread, thanks for sharing.” “Spot on, couldn’t have said it better.” Replies like these say nothing about the post they sit under. X wants replies that are relevant to the conversation, and readers spot this kind of reply at a glance. It’s what people mean by AI slop: the stock lines a bot would write under anything.
Lots of replies in a short time
X’s authenticity policy lists “sending bulk, aggressive, high-volume unsolicited replies” as content spam. For a while our routine was 50 to 80 replies a day, all of them written inside one or two hours. We pasted every one of them in by hand, and to X it still looked like a burst.
Many replies to the same person
One of our worst habits was opening someone’s profile and replying to every post they had made that day, one after another. To that person it’s a pile of notifications. X’s help page on limited accounts names “aggressive engagements” as a reason it limits accounts, and a stack of replies to one person in a few minutes looks a lot like that.
The same words, again and again
X’s rules page says it plainly: “repeatedly posting duplicated and unsolicited replies to many accounts is considered spam behavior.” Pasting one reply under many posts, or a template with a word changed, is a quick way to get there.
The whole account is held back
When X limits a whole account, or puts a label on its reach, its replies can disappear from threads altogether. That’s a bigger problem than one reply in the spam list, and it has its own signs. We explain them in X account locked, limited or suspended.
How to check where your replies are
You can check it yourself in a minute:
- Open your profile’s Replies tab (
x.com/yourname/with_replies) and find the reply. - Open the post you replied to, and look through its replies.
- If your reply is missing there, press Show probable spam at the bottom and look again.
| What you find | What it means |
|---|---|
| Your reply in the main list | X shows it like any other reply. |
| Your reply only behind Show probable spam | X marked it as possible spam. Few people will see it. |
| Your reply on your Replies tab and nowhere in the thread | X hid it from the thread. Check whether your account is limited or has a label. |
The last row is the one to worry about. It’s how we found out X had put a label on one of our accounts, days before X told us anything. The full story is in We lost a Twitter (X) account because of replies.
How to keep your replies out of probable spam
- Reply to the post in front of you. Mention something only this post has: a number from it, a word the author used, what’s in the picture. A reply that could go under any post is the kind X sinks.
- Spread your replies over the day. The same 50 replies packed into one hour look like a bulk run.
- Pick one post per person. Reply to the one you have something to say about, and leave their other posts for another day.
- Never paste the same reply twice.
- Keep your email and phone number on the account. X asks for them whenever it wants to check that an account belongs to a real person, and it uses them to give you access back.
- Drop any app that posts, likes or follows for you. X’s authenticity policy says users are “ultimately responsible for third-party applications” they authorize.
Twick was built around these habits. It drafts replies about the post itself, in your voice, and you choose one and press Reply on X yourself. Its Safe mode reminds you when you pass 30 replies in an hour, 100 in a day, 5 to the same person in a day, or two replies only seconds apart. It’s a reminder you can ignore, and no tool can promise X will never mark a reply as spam.
Hidden replies are something else
A post’s author can hide any reply under their post. X keeps hidden replies one tap away behind the hidden reply icon on the original post, and it doesn’t tell you when one of yours gets hidden. Hiding is the author’s choice, while probable spam is X’s.
Questions
Can I move a reply out of probable spam?
We haven’t found a way, and X’s help pages don’t describe one. What you control is the next reply: one about the post, sent at a calm pace.
Does X Premium keep my replies out of probable spam?
X lists Premium among the things that rank a reply higher. It doesn’t say Premium keeps a reply out of the spam list, and one of our Premium accounts still got a label that cut its reach.
Is probable spam the same as a shadowban?
Many people call it that. X’s word for it is “probable spam”, and it applies to single replies. When a whole account gets cut back, X calls it a limit or a label, which is a wider problem.
How long does a reply stay in probable spam?
X doesn’t say.