Twitter users might soon be able to share how they feel about a tweet without needing to quote a tweet or reply to it. The microblogging social media platform is looking into releasing a feature that will allow users to react to a post.
Twitter vs. Facebook
Facebook has rolled out reactions for their users' posts since 2016. Now, app reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong spotted Twitter testing out something similar, The Verge reported.
Facebook reactions have also included seasonal, temporary reactions to match a certain theme or celebration. This includes the "Thankful" purple flower they released for Mother's Day.
FB has also released the "Care" reaction as a response to the isolation and quarantine measures that started during the global pandemic. They wanted friends and family members to "feel a bit more connected," the FB Team said in their release of the reaction.
Twitter, since its release in 2006, has only allowed users to react to tweets in four main ways: a like, a retweet, a reply, and a quote tweet.
The like button was once a star icon which was replaced by a heart icon later on. A retweet just shares the tweet on your profile and to your followers. A reply is straightforward, replying to the tweet publicly like a comment instead of a direct message. And a quote tweet embeds the tweet you are talking about to your post.
With this new feature, Twitter can now let its users express more than just a "like" on posts with four other reactions like "Cheer," "Hmm," "Sad," and "Haha."
Saw a bunch of Twitter employees reacting on the first ever tweet by Jack 😆 pic.twitter.com/U32d0CQSLm
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) June 1, 2021
The icons of some of the reactions use the heart as a placeholder for now. TechRadar said the launch may not be too far away, seeing as the code is already deployed. And basing it off of Wong's tweet, it does look like a work in progress.
For those wondering where the "angry" react is, The Verge speculated that it may be because anger on Twitter is already handled by the reply and quote tweet functions.
When Gadgets 360 reached out to Twitter for its schedule plans for the new feature roll-out, it replied: "We're always exploring additional ways for people to express themselves in conversations happening on Twitter. We'll keep you posted."
Other Twitter Updates
Twitter has been rolling out and testing quite a lot of features recently. Twitter Spaces was just recently released, offering a similar service to the audio-based app Clubhouse. It has also opened up its verification services again after years of putting it on hold.
Twitter is also about to unveil their Blue subscription service that will allow paying users extra features like the ability to recall tweets and play around with six different color schemes, shared TechRadar.
The Verge also noted the other new features the app is testing such as the "Tip Jar" that allows users to send money to their favorite accounts, as well as larger image formats on the newsfeed itself,--no longer cropping the image to fill a small rectangle as a preview.
