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Twitter replaces stars with hearts, ‘favorites’ with ‘likes’

Mr. Sacca also pointed out that the use of the heart button on Twitter‘s video-streaming app Periscope had been liked by its users.

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Many Twitter users scorned the change, and a hashtag called #WeWantFavButtonBack quickly appeared.

Users on Twitter, 320 million in total, have lots of likes, but not everything is their “favorite”, according to Akarshan Kumar, a Twitter product manager.

The heart, on the other hand, is a universal symbol and more expressive, the company said. Twitter for Mac and Vine for iOS will be updated soon, the company said.

The heart-shaped option should come in as nothing new for social media users though. But are Twitter users actually happy with the change?

Now, if you log in to your Twitter feed, you’ll find that your trusty little star icon has been replaced by a love heart.

“If Twitter integrated a simple heart gesture into each Tweet, engagement across the entire service would explode”, he had said, adding that “favorite” was too strong a word.

Twitter has been struggling to boost its user base in the face of sluggish growth compared with that of other social networks.

Twitter has featured a favourite button in the shape of a yellow star since just after it was launched in 2006. “There is a big jump in “fav’ing something cause you think it’s amusing and a ‘heart” which implies you love it”.

Always considered yourself a bit of a Twitter star?

Is Twitter moving in the right direction with this new feature?

Today Twitter rolled out a a new icon for showing approval for tweets. Facebook recently made waves by announcing that it would give users the ability to express a wider range of emotions instead of the simple “like” it had been using for years.

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We asked you in a Twitter poll which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments.

Twitter heart-shaped favourites