Looks like our little blue bird will now be sending heart-shaped "like" button instead of the usual star for "favourite" to engage more users on the microblogging site. Facing some crisis on expanding the number of users, the move is to copy the popular "like" button of Google's YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, which recently released "emoji reactions" to allow users to express emotions quickly.
Forbes reports that this new feature has also been encouraged by Chris Sacca, an investor and billionaire venture capitalist, stating in his essay that "favorite" was too strong for a reaction button. "If Twitter integrated a simple heart gesture into each Tweet, engagement across the entire service would explode," he said. Furthermore, a heart-shaped button would surely encourage constant visit and posting according to his blog entitled "What Twitter Can Be."
The company admitted that its primary aim is to provide a simplified and enhanced experience for new users. This is regardless of the fact that hearts give more expression or convey positive feedback.
"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," Akarshan Kumar, product manager of Twitter said. "You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favorite."
However, it seems that not all Twitter users were happy with the alterations; thus, a hashtag called #WeWantFavButtonBack immediately trended online. For example, user Jason tweeted "Changing @Twitter's star to a heart is the worst product decision in the history of the internet; makes a bookmark into an endorsement."
The changes are in line with the move of Jack Dorsey, the newly designated CEO of Twitter after serving as interim boss since July, to enhance user interaction. In fact, aside from the new "like" button, the company had also included a "buy now" button making online shopping possible using Twitter.
