Twitter Hearts (Photo : Twitter)
Twitter's Favorite button and star icon, which tweeters used to signal responses of agreement, laugher, and support, have been killed off. The social network announced on November 3, Tuesday that it is replacing them on the Web and apps with a Like button and red heart icon, in an attempt to create a simpler user experience. Its changes will also apply to Twitter-owned Vine.
Twitter product manager Akarshan Kumar stated in a blog post that the company wants to prevent "newcomers" from being confused by the star system. Not everything can be a person's favorite thing.
Twitter rolled out Favorites in 2006, which was around the time the microblogging service started up. They appeared before Tumblr's red hearts (2008), and Facebook's Like button (2009).
The original function of Favorites or "favs" was to bookmark its 140-charcter tweets. An irony is that at launch Twitter messages did not support photos or videos, according to The Verge.
In fact, the bookmarking feature had little functionality. However, the Twitter community turned it into a powerful multi-purpose tool through the use of hashtags for keyword-based content and retweets to create viral messages.
During the Like/hearts icon roll-out, Twitter's tests showed that users who enabled them used them more frequently. In social media they have already become standard icons on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram.
However, not all Twitter account holders have been happy about the change from Favorite/stars to Like/hearts. The Chrome App Store includes various extensions including Twitter Star, Twitter Favorite, and StarBack, according to Wired.
