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How To Undo a Retweet and Remove It From Twitter Forever

Duane Columbres

Mar 21, 2024 9 mins read
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Did you know 97% of the tweets on Twitter are from 25% of the users? It also explains why retweeting is popular on this platform. When done correctly, you can leverage it to increase your follower count. It brings your old tweets to life and allows you to add to the conversation. But what if you shared something recently but no longer agree with the idea? Or have you changed your mind and want to make some edits? In this case, learning how to undo a retweet is a lifesaver.

What if there are a lot of posts you want to take down? Is this possible, even though you protect your tweets? So many questions but not enough convincing answers. Thankfully, you won’t have to keep searching, as you’ll get all the solutions for reversing retweets.

The Twitter bird with a retweet, like, comment, hashtag, followers and direct message icon.

How To Undo a Retweet Using the Official Twitter App?

There are several answers to the question “how to undo a retweet?” First, let’s start with the official app, which is popular among Gen Z in the U.S. As you may already know, retweets differ from tweets. For starters, posts you share contain the name and username of the author. Also, it comes with the retweet icon and the retweeting user’s name.

A person holding an Android smartphone in their left hand and waiting for the Twitter app to open.

When you share your tweet or another user’s post, it appears in your followers’ timelines. So, how can you reverse this decision? Here’s what you need to do on Android and iOS devices:

  1. Download and install the official Twitter app if you don’t have it.
  2. Log in to your Twitter account.
  3. Once you’re on the homepage, look for your profile photo. It’s usually towards the left. Tap on it, and the sidebar pops out. Otherwise, swipe from left to right anywhere on the screen.
  4. In the sidebar, select Profile to open your account page.
  5. Under the Tweets tab, find the retweet you want to remove. You’ll see a green retweet icon below this post.
  6. Tap on the green retweet icon to open a new menu.
  7. There are two options – Undo Retweet and Quote Tweet. Tap on Undo Retweet.

Following these steps will remove the retweet from your timeline.

How To Undo a Retweet on Twitter With a Web Browser?

There are 76.9 million users from the U.S. on Twitter. However, not everyone uses the official app. Fortunately, undoing a retweet on Twitter is still possible on any browser. Given below are five steps to follow to remove the post from your timeline:

  1. Go to Twitter’s homepage and enter your login details, i.e., username and password.
  2. From your timeline, click on Profile. It’s a menu option in the left sidebar. It’ll take you to your account page.
  3. Under Tweets, look for the retweet button. If you’re unsure, find a post with a green retweet button. It indicates you retweeted the post.
  4. Click on this retweet icon, which opens a small setting page. 
  5. From the two options, select Undo Retweet.

Does it change the color of the retweet icon from green to gray? If yes, congratulations on successfully undoing a retweet.

How To Undo a Retweet: Will It Delete the Original Tweet?

Undoing a retweet works when you want to remove it from your timeline. But there are a handful of noteworthy points to keep in mind about this process. A common reason to remove a retweet is that you don’t want to see it. 

While it does eliminate it from your profile, this isn’t true if you’re the author. In this case, anyone who visits your profile will still see the original post. So, if you want to leave zero clues, you must delete the tweet

You can remove the original tweet by visiting your Twitter profile from a browser. Alternatively, Android and iOS apps allow you to delete the post.

What if you retweet another user’s post? Unfortunately, there isn’t any way to remove this tweet. You can ask the user to take down their post, but your success may vary.

If the original tweet violates Twitter’s rules, you can report it. Twitter will review reports to determine whether the user is a rule breaker. They’ll ask the account to remove the post if they find the user guilty.

A woman using her smartphone.

Is It Possible To Undo the Original Tweet?

Is there an option to undo the original tweet as the author? Yes, but this feature isn’t available to free users. You need a subscription to Twitter Blue to get access to it. Also, it’s not the same as the process on how to undo a retweet.

Can you prevent the Tweet from appearing on another user’s feed? Yes, but there’s a limit on how long you can wait. The default setting is 30 seconds, i.e., you have half a minute to undo the tweet.

It isn’t the same as editing your tweet after it goes live, as this is a different feature. What happens if you don’t undo the post within 30 seconds? In this case, deleting the tweet is the only option.

However, you can change the timer’s length as per your preferences. Shorten it to five seconds or increase the timer to 60 seconds. You’ll find this option in the Twitter Blue Features setting.

How To Undo a Retweet: Why This Twitter Feature is Unavailable

Sometimes, when you try to undo a retweet, you’ll notice the retweet icon is gray. Why does this happen even though you can see other posts with the green icon? Well, there is one reason you can’t use the feature to undo a retweet.

For the longest time, there were multiple ways to access Twitter. Not everyone was a fan of the official app, so several third-party alternatives were available. Some removed all the advertisements, while others offered robust features.

Recently, Twitter decided to restrict third-party apps from using their API. As a result, several apps stopped working overnight. What does this have to do with retweets? If you used a third-party app, it explains why you don’t see undo retweet feature.

Several third-party apps came up with their version of a retweet. Although Twitter didn’t mind this, they didn’t classify these posts as retweets. Instead, they considered them as a tweet. If this is true, the only option is to delete the tweet.

How To Undo a Retweet From Another User?

Can you follow the steps on how to undo a retweet for another user’s post? First, why is a random user’s tweet appearing in your Twitter feed? You’ve never seen this account before and don’t remember following them.

Unfortunately, this is quite common on Twitter. However, there’s a reason why you’re seeing this random post. If you were to look on top of the tweet, you’d notice another user retweeted it. As you follow the retweeter, it appears in your feed.

Fortunately, you can make sure this doesn’t happen to you again. Go to the retweeter’s profile by clicking on the username. It doesn’t matter whether you’re using the official app or the web version, it doesn’t matter. Once on the account’s profile page, look for the vertical three-dot icon. iOS devices will see this as a gear icon.

Click it to open the drop-down menu for the account. Find Turn Off Retweets and select it. Now, you’ll never see any retweets from this specific follower.

What if several accounts do the same thing? Currently, no tools allow you to turn off retweets for every account. You’ll need to do this on a case-by-case basis.

An iPhone with notifications from Whatsapp and Twitter on the lock screen.

How To Undo a Retweet From a Private Account?

You’ll see a padlock icon next if you have a protected account. You can follow the same steps as how to undo a retweet. When the post is from another protected account, then there’s nothing you can do. However, you can prevent other users from retweeting or quoting your tweets with a protected account.

Keep in mind there’s a workaround to this restriction. Users can take a screenshot of your post and tweet it to their followers. In this case, you can’t follow the steps on how to undo a retweet from a private account.

Will Anyone Know if You Undo a Retweet?

After you follow the instructions on how to undo a retweet on Twitter, you wonder if it informs other users. It is a valid question. You may not want to go ahead if your followers get a notification. 

There are nuances to this question. For starters, when you retweet another user’s post, they get a notification. If you undo the retweet immediately, the notification is still there. However, they won’t see a retweet on your profile when they check. This way, they’ll know about your action.

However, there’s no way to know if you do this for an older post. The user will have to remember that you retweeted their tweet. They’ll have to go to your account and scroll till the date of the retweet. It is doubtful anyone will put in this much effort. Also, if they turned off retweets notifications, there’s no reason to worry.

How To Undo Retweets in Bulk?

What if you have several retweets in your timeline? Is there a solution on how to undo retweets in bulk for all posts? Sadly, this feature isn’t available on Twitter. One solution is to follow how to undo a retweet for every post manually. However, you may already realize you’ll spend hours browsing your profile.

Luckily, there are alternatives to this mundane task. One easy solution is to use a third-party app that can delete tweets. When you remove the original posts, you won’t see the retweet. TweetDelete makes it easy to filter and bulk delete tweets from your profile. What if you want an overall view of your tweets and decide which ones to remove? Upload your Twitter data file to the app, and see them as a spreadsheet. Simplify bulk deleting your tweets by making it a one-click process today!    

Duane Columbres

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