Twitter users around the world were jolted to learn Tuesday morning that stars had been replaced with hearts, and âfavoritesâ with âlikes.â
âWe hope you like what you see,â said Akarshan Kumar, product manager at Twitter, in a chipper blog post. âWe want to make Twitter easier and more rewarding to use, and we know that at times the star could be confusing, especially to newcomers. You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favorite.â
The heart is âa universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures and time zones,â Mr. Kumar said, âenabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people. And in our tests, we found that people loved it.â
As with anything new on social media platforms, many users rushed to complain and make jokes, using Twitter itself, as they had the last time changes were made to the âfavoritesâ function.
By noon, there had been at least 192,000 tweets about the change, making âlikesâ a trending topic. Users who objected to the term cited its association with Facebook, Twitter’s rival. Many other platforms, including Instagram and Apple Music, also use hearts instead of stars.
Mr. Kumar was unrepentant.
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