Twitter’s “Favourite” button has been the ideal tool of choice for a number of actions on Twitter: while it has often been clicked to show support of a person’s tweet, it has also been a weapon of choice for those most nefarious of Twitter users: the SubTweeters. Lurking in dingy closets, these people smile deviously as they “Favourite” your tweet, giggling maniacally, to themselves, at some perverse joke only they fully understand.
Alas, no more. Twitter has officially killed the Favourite button. It will instead be replaced by something every 6 year old is familiar with: a “Like” button. The star icon associated with Favourites is also being retired, to be replaced by a heart icon, supporting the fact that Twitter is a place of love and rainbows. And it isn’t just Twitter that’s getting these changes; they’ll also be applied to the Twitter-owned Vine
“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 favourite. 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.”
– Akarshan Kumar, Product Manager
Twitter goes on to show how expressive the heart icon is with the following tweet (which seems a touch too cheerful and optimistic in its examples):
https://twitter.com/twitter/status/661558661131558915
Starting today, you’ll see hearts on Twitter for iOS and Android, twitter.com, TweetDeck, Twitter for Windows 10, and on Tweets across the Internet, as well as on the Vine Android app and website. You’ll see them soon on Vine for iOS and Twitter for Mac.
Source: Twitter Blog
