Take a look at your Twitter page. Notice anything different? There's been a Lucky Charms-style sea change, as the company has officially abandoned its long-standing star system in favor of the arguably more straight-forward heart icon. Along with the new symbology comes a new name - those "favorites" are now "likes."
Bot loves or even like-likes, as the iconography might imply, just good old-fashioned likes, in the style of Mark Zuckerberg and co.
Why the shift? Simply put, "You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favorite." Turns out that even in the age of internet hyperbole, not everything can simultaneously be the best thing ever.
Twitter product manager Akarshan Kumar adds that the heart symbol is also just more universally recognized across cultural boundaries, languages and the like. Also "in our tests, we found that people loved it." People didn't just like, they loved it.
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
Sadly, there is no symbol to accurately portray that sentiment. As we all know, the heart is now the universal symbol for liking something.
The company first tried out the hard over on Periscope and is now ready to add them to Vine and Twitter itself. The update is already starting to show up on twitter.com, the iOS and Android app, TweetDeck, and Twitter for Windows 10. Vine roll outs are coming soon.
Source: Twitter
