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Twitter Emoji

Twitter multi-emoji reactions could replace hearts

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By Rebecca Stewart | Trends Editor

November 17, 2015 | 2 min read

It seems Twitter may have had a change of heart over its new 'like' function, which replaced the social network's 'favourite' button – swapping the star icon for a love heart.

The site appears to have made its first foray into the world of emoji-speak, and is now letting users share reactions through a range of illustrative cartoons.

Twitter is testing the system within a developer preview of the app, discovered by a user with a jailbroken iPhone.

The news follows comments from Twitter's senior vice-president Kevin Weil in defence of the "divisive" heart system, after the micro-blogging platform noted a six per cent increase in users 'liking' posts the week it was implemented.

He said the new symbol was much more inclusive: "We tested it in a number of different ways across a bunch of different countries, trying different icons, trying different words and what we found was that the heart is a very universal symbol.

"And the word like is a word that applies across cultures, across time zones. People just understand it better," he added.

If implemented, Twitter could potentially collaborate with brands to monitise the new emojis, as it has done with promoted trends and tweets.

When asked about the new feature, Twitter issued the following response:

The move comes as the 'Tears of Joy' emoji was named by the Oxford Dictionary as Word of the Year.

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