In case you haven’t noticed yet, Twitter has replaced one of its “iconic” icons that was once responsible for making the social media platform’s service so unique.
The company behind the social media app recently announced that the change was intended to make the service easier to use for its new users.
In place of the good old star icon — which used to represent the Twitter users’ ‘favorites’ — is the heart icon, which now represents the users’ ‘likes’, and works the same way the hearts on Instagram work.
In a blog post on Twitter dated Nov. 3, the company’s Product Manager, Akarshan Kumar, said:
“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.”
Kumar further explained that while it may possible for users to like a lot of things, the same can’t be true when it comes to favorites. He told:
“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.”
But it looks like not everyone loved it. A myriad of users were taken aback by the sudden change as the update rolled out Nov. 3, and not all of them were happy.
While Twitter believes the ‘heart’ icon will help users “express their feelings better”, others were apparently not so keen on the idea.
Some users have accused the social media giant’s move as a ‘desperate’ call for attention, noting that new users of the platform are virtually ‘non-existent’.
The sudden change was felt all across the platform’s web service, iOS and Android apps, as well as Vine.