No more ‘fav yellow star’ button on Twitter
It’s big news. Twitter’s iconic yellow star button has been replaced by a pink heart-shaped one.
If you haven’t been able to perceive this change, it is probably because the change has still not taken place in your device. Starting on Tuesday, users will be able to click on the pink heart button in their iOS and Android apps, Twitter.com, TweetDeck, Twitter for Windows 10, and on the Vine Android app and website. And it will son appear on the Vine iOS and Twitter for Mac apps.
So wave goodbye to the iconic yellow star and your ‘favourite’ list, because it is about to turn into a pink(-ish) red heart and a ‘like’ list.
But what’s behind these colour and shape changes?
As I have already mentioned in another post, Twitter has introduced a new feature, Twitter Polls, that aims at widening the platform’s possibilities. This change, together with the replacement of the yellow star-shaped button for a pink heart-shaped one, and some other changes, indicate that the company is going through a period of major changes (that we are happy to welcome), which affect the whole microblogging world.
But this shape change is not arbitrary. As explained by the company in a blog post, “You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favorite,” the post says. “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.”
And although it might anger some fans who have grown fond of Twitter’s yellow button, the switch isn’t that surprising. And its is only logical to adjust to what other popular platforms (Instagram, Tumblr, Periscope, Pinterest and even Medium, among others) are using for the sake of helping the users.
Twitter’s use of the heart-shaped button does not aim at copying the symbols that other platforms use. As explained by the company, it is just a matter of using symbols that best express the meaning the users want to convey.
Maybe, Facebook may even follow the same path (it is too far fetched?).
So, goodbye yellow star button. You’ll always be our ‘favourite’. And welcome pink heart button. We already ‘like’ you.
Hope this ideas are useful to you! Feel free to comment and/or ask.
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