Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

Twitter's emoji reactions might solve its 'heart' problem

By

twitter testing emoji reactions ninji
_Ninji/Twitter
Up until now, we’ve been limited to the star (R.I.P.) and the newly unveiled heart on Twitter if we wanted to react to a tweet. While the star seemed to work sufficiently (as a means of actually favoriting tweets, simply acknowledging someone else’s tweets, or casually ending conversations without actually tweeting, “Okay, bye now”) many users were still unsure of what they were saying when they pressed the star button. Recently, and not long after Twitter’s new heart added to the confusion, a user came across what allegedly appears to be Twitter testing emoji reactions as a way to interact with tweets.

Twitter user @_Ninji recently tweeted what looks to be a line of emoji reactions to choose from when the heart isn’t exactly the emotion you are going for. According to the tweet, choices include the party noisemaker, the “100” symbol, and for especially infuriating tweets, the face with steam coming out of its nose. In a comment to The Verge, the user said the emoji reactions were accessed through a jailbroken version of the app.

Recommended Videos
Please enable Javascript to view this content

It wouldn’t be surprising if Twitter is in fact working on alternatives to its new heart button, considering the recent backlash that occurred when the star was itself quietly replaced by the heart (a.k.a. “like”) button. At the beginning of the month, the new heart left many users ambivalent about how “liking” a tweet, as opposed to just favoriting it, might be perceived, and the change was seen as forcing users to completely change how they interact with others. Also, Facebook’s plan to add emoji to its own line of reactions has long been in the works, in response to the same limitations users experience when obliged to press something that might indicate happiness or agreement when that wasn’t their intention.

Related

However, @_Ninji also mentioned that the Twitter emoji reactions function appeared to be far from complete, so as it turns out, we’re stuck with the heart for now.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Christina Majaski
Christina Majaski
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Christina has written for print and online publications since 2003. In her spare time, she wastes an exorbitant amount of…
Twitter says it’s still investigating major outage
Twitter logo in white stacked on top of a blue stylized background with the Twitter logo repeating in shades of blue.

Twitter was hit by a service outage affecting users around the world on Thursday morning, though the precise number of people affected isn’t clear.

Those experiencing the problem were met with the message: “Tweets aren't loading right now. Try again."

Read more
Twitter is officially testing Notes, its long-form blogging feature
The Twitter app on the Sony XPeria 5 II.

It's been called Twitter Article before, but now the bird app's long-form posts feature goes by Notes, and it's officially being tested with a few users now.

On Wednesday, Twitter announced via a tweet that it was now testing its Notes feature and introduced it as "a way to write longer on Twitter."

Read more
Elon Musk reveals who might have to pay to use Twitter
Elon Musk stands looking to his right.

As prospective Twitter owner Elon Musk prepares to take the microblogging service in a new direction, many of its 217 million active users are keen to know what exactly he plans to do with it.
Musk is the kind of guy who likes to people keep guessing, so it’s currently hard to say what will happen (though the long-called-for edit feature seems like a certainty).
However, tweeting to his 90 million followers on Tuesday, Musk made clear that he wants to keep the service free for casual users, while adding that there could be a “slight cost” for commercial and government accounts.
“Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users,” Musk wrote in the tweet posted on Tuesday, May 3.
Many had been wondering if Musk, who bid $43 billion for Twitter in April, might move the social media service toward a subscription-based model, especially as recent comments by the billionaire entrepreneur suggested a potential move away from ads.
Twitter does currently offer a subscription tier called Twitter Blue, which costs $3 a month for users in certain countries. Twitter Blue includes a few extra features such as undo tweet, bookmark folders, custom navigation, and custom app icons. Recent reports claimed that Musk was interested in reducing the subscription for Twitter Blue to $2 a month, though for now it remains at $3.
Musk’s controversial bid for Twitter was accepted by the board toward the end of last month. However, it still needs to be approved by shareholders and regulators, so it could be several months before it's finalized.
Assuming the deal goes through, here are some changes Musk has suggested that he may make to the platform once he has full control of it.

Read more