It’s fair to say that not all Twitter users were too keen when hearts were recently introduced in place of the star icon.
From regular tweeters to fans of Hibernian, there was plenty of dismay at the decision to make the change.
https://twitter.com/IamVMark/status/661808174647767040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Many weren’t keen that the introduction of hearts made Twitter more like other social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook.
What. Why is it a heart and not a star. This is not Instagram. This is Twitter. Favs not likes.
— Sam Baril (@BarilSam) November 3, 2015
Others were concerned that things that they had previously favourited now had a heart icon beside them – the stars were used by many as a bookmarking tool and not something which necessarily showed their approval.
But the switch appears to be bearing fruit, with Twitter’s Kevin Weil telling those at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco that it had seen a 6% increase in users liking posts in just one week.
He also explained that the decision to make the change had not been an easy one:
“We tested it in a number of different ways across a bunch of different countries, trying different icons, trying different words and what we found was that the heart is a very universal symbol. It’s a much more inclusive symbol.
“You only have a few favourites. There are only a few things that are your favourites but you can like lots of things.
“And the word like is a word that applies across cultures, across time zones. People just understand it better.”
Twitter also says that it’s also had a 9% rise in users since the change.
