Twitter's Hearts Made People Like More

Tapping the heart icon is easier to understand which contributed to the 6% increase on liking activity.

Last week, the Twittersphere was shocked as stars turned to hearts and favorites turned to likes. Not many are happy about it but Twitter itself is, especially as a 6% growth on liking activity was reported this week by Twitter's SVP of Product Kevin Weil at the Open Mobile Summit at San Francisco.

According to Weil, tapping the heart icon is easier to understand which contributed to that 9% increase for new users on liking compared to favoriting and 6% for existing users. Some had expressed their dislike regarding the change but it's to be expected when something new is presented.

The verdict is still out there if the change was for the best or not.

“We put a lot of thought into a change as fundamental as replacing star with heart. We tested it a bunch of different ways across a bunch of different countries. Trying different icons, different words.” Weil shared. “The heart is a universal symbol. It’s a much more inclusive symbol.”

The verdict is still out there if the change was for the best or not. Even for Facebook the Like button had faced criticism and Twitter joining the liking a bit too late was expected to face opposition especially as they are a channel for broadcasting some unlikeable occurrences as well. For now, they heart button is beating fast and it doesn't look that it will have heart failure any time soon.