To make Twitter easier and more rewarding to use , Twitter is changing their star icon for favorites to a heart and will be calling them likes. Immediately,it brings up some vague shared Facebook and Instagram memories?
Well, don’t be alarmed. Starring or Heart’ing’ a tweet will still have the same basic effect. Twitter just feels that a heart is simpler for a newcomer to understand.
In a statement, Twitter said: “We know that at times the star could be confusing, especially to newcomers, you might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favorite. The heart, in contrast, is a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones.
“The heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people. And in our tests, we found that people loved it.You’ve embraced hearts in a big way on Periscope, and we’re delighted to bring them to Twitter and Vine, making them the common language for our global community.”
You can say a lot with a heart. Introducing a new way to show how you feel on Twitter: https://t.co/WKBEmORXNW pic.twitter.com/G4ZGe0rDTP
— Twitter (@twitter) November 3, 2015
Starting today, you’ll see hearts on Twitter for iOS and Android, twitter.com, TweetDeck, Twitter for Windows 10, as well as on the Vine Android app and website. You’ll see them soon on Vine for iOS and Twitter for Mac.
If you don’t like hearts, then there are ways to go back to the star a s Mashable reports or Gizmodo even has a tutorial for replacing the heart with the emoji of your choice.
Here’s how Twitter users reacted to the change:
@silviakillings You have a tattoo of a heart too? https://t.co/UIr2YkZZRf
— Reed Kavner (@reedkavner) November 3, 2015
“I’m really angry that these little hearts have replaced little stars!!!” – adults
— elan gale (@theyearofelan) November 3, 2015
I insist the #hearts are changed to mini Death Stars.
— DarthVader_No1™ (@Burnt_Out_Darth) November 3, 2015
[extremely Werner Herzog voice] But what the Twitter men ignored was that no preponderance of hearts could alter the universe’s cold apathy
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) November 3, 2015
Twitter can turn stars to hearts but can’t let us edit our tweets
— KING DRE (@OfficialKingDre) November 3, 2015
It’s kinda weird how when you click the “Like” hearts they seem to explode.
— Lola + G (@LolaPlusG) November 4, 2015