Twitter Tests Emoji Reactions on Tweets
Sep. 10, 2021Months after rolling outemoji reactions in Direct Messages, Twitter was spotted working on the possibility of letting usersreact to tweets using emojis and Fleets. While we all knowwhat happened to Fleets, the company has been working on emoji reactions and has started testing the feature with users in Turkey.
React to Tweets Using Emojis
Following in the footsteps of Facebook,Twitter is now allowingusers in Turkeyto react to tweets with emojisfor a limited time. There are five emojis to choose from — 🤔, 😢, 😂, 👏, and ❤️. According to Twitter, emoji reactions will give people more ways to show how they feel about a tweet.
Twitter says itintentionally chose to exclude negative reactionsafter a survey.“Although ‘frustration’ and ‘anger’ are also common emotions people feel while reading Tweets, and some people want to express disagreement with Tweets, we’re not incorporating these as emoji reactions right now,”said Twitter.
If you live in Turkey, you canaccess tweet reactions by long-pressing the Like button. It’s worth mentioning that a single short tap will send the Like you are used to. The feature is available on Android, iOS, and the web. We will have to wait to see if Twitter expands the emoji reactions feature to more regions based on how users respond to this test.
Notably, this is not the only approach Twitter is testing to revamp its like system. The company recently started testingReddit-style upvote and downvote buttons on tweetsearlier this year. Would you prefer reacting to tweets using emojis, as opposed to the current approach? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.
