Yesterday’s (not wholly unexpected) change has rocked me to my very core.

I opened up Twitter, only to see that my beloved ‘favourites’ star had been replaced by a twee pink heart, à la Instagram. Don’t get me wrong– I love Instagram’s hearts function. I was, however, surprised to see it replicated in my Twitter feed.

Once the initial shock abated, I sat down to digest what feels like a fairly monumental change.

You might speculate that it was motivated at least partly by a need to bring Twitter’s interface more closely in line with Periscope, where ‘hearts’ are a prominent feature. Since Periscope is owned by, and integrates with, Twitter, employing the same mechanism for likes seems a logical move.

Even so, the new Twitter likes haven’t had a particularly warm reception. Despite Twitter’s claims that during testing they ‘found that people loved it’, the outcry from users seems to say just the opposite.

First, the forcibly positive nature of the hearts seems at odds with Twitter’s often cynical and witty user base. In the words of one of my co-workers (who will remain nameless)– it’s a bit cutesy.
Aesthetics aside, it’s plain that many users will miss the ambiguity of the star. Favouriting tweets allowed users to mark them as something you’d like to look at again without necessarily liking it. Among those concerned about the semantics of the new likes are journalists who want to be able to save breaking news story but don’t want to ‘like’ tragic or unfortunate content.

 

Journalists tweet to criticise Twitter hearts

Twitter claim that the switch to a universally-used system of likes, with an easily-recognisable icon, will make the network friendlier to new users. Perhaps that’s true– and if so, it’s a powerful and much-needed change for a network where a reported 44% of users have never sent a tweet.

For many of us, though, the demise of the Twitter star is the loss of a unique element that set the network apart.

What do you think? Love the new likes, or will you miss Twitter’s star?

– Moya

 

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Kate Tyler is the founder of Shake Social and our long time social media expert. A regular speaker at events, Kate offers consultancy and training on a range of digital marketing topics, in particular safeguarding and using social media in an educational setting.