Twitter replaces 'favourites' with 'likes,' changes stars to hearts

Twitter announced Tuesday morning that it would be replacing its "favourites" feature, and its little yellow star, with "likes" and a red heart. But many users didn't love the idea.

Switch to hearts brings Twitter in sync with Periscope, Vine, Instagram

John Bowman CBC News Posted: Nov 03, 2015 11:28 AM EST | Last Updated: November 3, 2015

Twitter announcedTuesday morning that it would be replacing its "favourites" feature, and its little yellow star, with "likes" and a red heart. But many users didn't love the idea.

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

In a blog post, Twitter explained its reasoning for the change, which rolled out across most of its apps and platforms today.

"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," the companysaid.

So much nope. pic.twitter.com/oi1msAEVDU
—@emmahcodee

The post called the heart a "universal symbol." The switch brings Twitter in line with its other properties Periscope, and Vine and withInstagram,all of which use hearts.

"The heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people," Twitter said.

For some Twitter users, that expressiveness is the problem with "likes" and "hearts."

Dear @Twitter: most of the time, for me and others, favourites are bookmarks more than they're expressions of, you know, love.
—@bruce_arthur

So now if I want to favorite something to save it for later, I have to indicate that I love it. Not good https://t.co/AXCQbAer7X
—@mathewi

Hearts? Hells no. If they want to change something how about give us an actual bookmark option.
—@Nicki_Doyle

The heart instead of the star is really a disaster for political journalists. A heart implies a stronger endorsement than a star.
—@ByronTau

Seems to me that heart-liking gets Twitter into the same positivity trap as facebookhard to acknowledge w/out agreeing.
—@joemfbrown

Some people on Twitter use Twitter favourites as a bookmarkingfunction, while for others it's a subtle indication to another user that they agree with a point, enjoyed a joke or simply read a tweet.

To some people, it was a strange thing to tinker with when there are other, perhaps more pressing issues with Twitter.

[Twitter headquarters] "We're losing the social media war! What do we do! I need ideas!" "What if we change stars to hearts?" "BRILLIANT!"
—@MikeDrucker

Hearts? WTF, @twitter? Can we have a *tweet edit* function, please?
—@jjfantauzzi

Love the heart, @Twitter. Now let's do something about the rape threats my friends and I regularly receive.
—@ChloeAngyal

For others, it was much ado about nothing.

Sounds like twitter finally saw the (_) ( _)>- (_) fault in our stars
—@elisefoley

I've learned 3 things from Twitter: 1) People hate change. 2) People accept change. 3) We'll all be dead in 100 years and no one will care.
—@paleofuture

They're just progressing through the Lucky Charms canon, people. Chill out. The purple horseshoe era will be here soon enough.
—@joereid

Twitter just turned Stars into Hearts. We should've seen this coming when they hired their new head of product pic.twitter.com/OIptrSsiTu
—@ReformedBroker

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