Twitter’s star-shaped ‘favourite’ button is no more. It has been replaced with a heart-shaped ‘like’ button, which the company says will “make Twitter easier and more rewarding to use.”
In a blog post, the company’s product manager, Akarshan Kumar said:
we know that at times the star could be confusing, especially to newcomers. You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favorite.
The heart, in contrast, is a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones. The heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people. And in our tests, we found that people loved it.
Ordinary users were divided on the change. Some seemed to like it.
Others made some helpful observations and suggestions.
Mostly, however, responses were negative.
Some bizarrely so.
This is the latest in a chain of subtle tweaks that the microblogging platform has recently rolled out to its user interface. They recently added a ‘poll’ feature, which allows any user to post a public online poll. Facebook-style birthdays have also been added, with animated balloons floating across users’ profiles on their birthdays.
The company’s fortunes have continued to decline in recent months, with stock falling by more than 40 per cent since last May. Although revenues at the company have improved, this is still a drastic decline in market value, and there remains a great deal of pressure on CEO Jack Dorsey to attract new users. It remains to be seen whether aesthetic tweaks to its user interface will do the social media platform any good.
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