Twitter Is Testing Multiple Emoji Reactions

By @TheMarkDalton.

The heart has only just been introduced in replacement of Twitter’s old trusted favourite star, we no longer use ‘favourites’ on Twitter we now refer to them as ‘likes.’ This of course has caused divided reaction with people complaining that the heart simply is not appropriate to everything you want to engage with. A prominent example was the recent Paris attacks at the weekend where users said they simply didn’t want to engage with that content using a heart.

Well, we have what appears to be good news for tweeters. Twitter seems to be already ahead and is testing multiple reactions and it is all starting to make sense. As I have previously stated, like it or not the switch from star to heart does make sense and it is a smart one. The heart is a universal symbol recognised all over the world and since it was introduced to replace the star Twitter has seen an increase in engagement.

Well Twitter user @_Ninji tweeted screenshots showing three tabs of new emoji reactions that Twitter are currently working on. Even better, it is not a joke and it is not photoshopped. In response to The Verge he said that he found the emoji reactions in a developer build which was accessed through a jailbroken version of the app. He also said that the feature seemed far from complete. He said that at the moment the UI only seems to be implemented and that after one of them is selected it will revert back to the heart when the feed is refreshed.

The move follows Facebook who are currently testing out limited reactions in Ireland and Spain at the moment. Social networks can no longer deny that users want to have the ability to express themselves in a range of different ways and when it comes down to it the standard like response is simply not good enough.

It comes at a difficult time for Twitter, they are striving to make the service simpler and more accessible to a large number of users however adding additional emoji does add to the complexity of Twitter. It will no doubt be a benefit in the long run and hopefully we will start seeing the feature appear in A/B tests in the future.

Casey Newton from The Verge reached out to Twitter and the statement he received says it all really!