If you joined Twitter early enough, you must have realized that a lot has changed about the bird app since it first launched in March 2006. The good part of this is that most of the changes brought about a refreshed experience.
In the latest development, information reaching our desk suggests that the social media network could adopt some Facebook-styled emoji reactions.
Before you ask yourself what other mess of a feature should you expect to be added on the platform, note that this particular update is still at the conception stage.
As spotted in a screenshot of a survey shared by a Twitter user, it appears that the company wants to – ahead of implementation – see people’s reactions about the potential use of emojis on the platform.
As spotted, some of the proposed emoji reactions to be used include the prominent laughing face with tears, a thinking face, and a crying face.
Source: @jdm0079 on Twitter
The survey also spots other hyper emoji reactions such as the shocked face, angry face, and fire emojis.
More so, while a downvote or dislike (thumb-down) emoji wasn’t spotted, a lot of users seem to be more interested in its inclusion.
Although yet to be officially confirmed, a Twitter spokesperson told TheVerge that the social media network is exploring new ways by which users can express themselves.
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“We’re exploring additional ways for people to express themselves in conversations happening on Twitter,” the spokesperson said while emphasising that research is still in its conception stage.
This won’t be the first of its kind
If implemented, this will not be the first time that Twitter will introducing an emoji reaction on the platform. The last time was in 2015, when the company replaced the ‘star’ emoji with ‘heart.’
Recall that the move attracted a lot of outrage where many users initially claimed that the feature sucks, however, got to stick around eventually.
Giving the negative feedback it received about its approach towards implementing a new emoji years back, it is understandable why it chose to send out surveys to random users.
The survey questions also indicate that the social network has taken its time to understand its user behaviour, which is even more evident in some survey questions.
Some of the survey questions include how users would like to take advantage of a downvote or dislike, for example.
Here, the company wants to be sure if users would rather use the reaction instead of commenting on offensive tweets.
Source: @jdm0079 on Twitter
Also, the survey asked other questions like how users would feel if perhaps they had tweeted an offensive statement and were subsequently downvoted.
Here, Twitter wants to know if such a reaction would influence their future tweets, especially constructively.
One more thing that was necessary for Twitter to ask is how users would like to have the emoji reactions displayed on their timeline.
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Not overlooking the possible impact and sentiment that could ensue from the use of a poor display of the emoji reaction, Twitter asked whether negative reaction counts should be visible, for instance.
Source: @jdm0079 on Twitter
While the question about the display of new emoji reactions does not suggest that the heart icon will be completely repositioned, Twitter claimed that new emoji reactions would only be an addition.
Users’ reaction so far
As expected, there have been mixed reactions about this development, and below are some comments from users.
Twitter is considering adding emoji reactions to tweets, and – wait for it – downvotes. 👎
Something tells me we're about to get our feelings hurt.
— SocialChain (@SocialChain) March 25, 2021
https://twitter.com/SippinSocialTea/status/1375059557140074498
https://twitter.com/CrawfinUSA/status/1375060100981776385
Interesting idea. Not sure if offering a negative “reaction” in the form of an emoji is a good idea though. https://t.co/lnxrx9sQ3D
— Sarah (Bonkowski) Shaw (@SarahBonkowski) March 25, 2021
and then