Twitter Concedes in Stars/Hearts Battle, Changes ‘Favorites’ to ‘Likes’

Twitter product manager Akarshan Kumar:

We are changing our star icon for favorites to a heart and we’ll be calling them likes. 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. 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.

On their website, they’ve already put this in place. They have an effusive little animation that plays when you tap the heart button to like something. But there is no animation for when you tap the heart again to un-like something — like say setting it on fire or turning it to ice.

Anyway, who can blame Twitter? Nobody likes stars.

★ Wednesday, 4 November 2015