Twitter appears to be testing a new system of emoji-based reactions to tweets that could replace the marmite-like heart or “like” rolled out at the start of November.
The feature, which allows users to “react” to tweets by using a selection of emojis covering celebratory, anger, horror and various other emotions, mirrors that used by team-based chat system Slack.
Twitter appears to be testing the system within a developer preview of the app, discovered by a user with a jailbroken iPhone that gave them access to hidden parts of the app.
I can't believe they're finally letting me 💯 tweets (The best part is that it's not even a joke, I just found this…) pic.twitter.com/cyJ6Lmfhgx
— Ninji, infamous dog (@_Ninji) November 16, 2015
Facebook introduced a similar system to allow users to react to posts by friends beyond a simple “like”, which is often inappropriate for negative posts by friends and family.
Twitter’s switch from favourites or bookmark indicated by a star to likes represented by a heart has proved divisive. Long-term users reacted badly to the switch, complaining that the heart indicated more than the star and could give the wrong impression. Starring a story for later access about a terrorist attack takes on a completely different meaning if a heart is used, for instance.
However, new users to Twitter have a higher engagement with hearts than they did with stars, according to the company.
Offering a range of emoji instead of the single heart icon could re-engage long-term users of the social network. It runs the risk of adding a level of intricacy to the system, however, which could further complicate the once-simple 140-character Twitter experience.
