Did anyone catch a little understated change on Twitter last week? If you hadn’t noticed, the favorites button, which used to be a star, changed to a heart overnight. So – how and why did that happen? Here’s a little snippet from the official Twitter blog:
“We are changing our star icon for favorites to a heart and we’ll be calling them likes. We want to make Twitter easier and more rewarding to use, and 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.”
So…what do you think? Are you more of a heart fan or are stars your thing? Or, could you care less one way or the other? Turns out, the internet had a lot to say about this little change:
This heart instead of a like button on @twitter is a terrible idea. #hatetheheart
— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) November 4, 2015
I DO NOT GO ON TWITTER TO BE REMINDED THAT I AM CAPABLE OF HAVING FEELINGS #BRINGBACKTHESTAR — Katherine Timpf (@KatTimpf) November 4, 2015
but, twitter, i didnt like everything i favorited
— nathanjurgenson (@nathanjurgenson) November 3, 2015
From the New York Times to Vanity Fair and even hashtags like #bringbackthestar and #hatetheheart, social media channels and news sources were a stream of chatter about the change:
“I don’t ? Twitter’s decision to abandon the ?.” (via NY Times)
How do you feel about Twitter’s decision to change the star to a heart?
