Twitter tests Facebook-like emoji reactions for tweets

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Twitter emoji reactions
There are five "healthy" reactions to choose from.
Photo: Twitter

Twitter is giving a small number of users the ability to add Facebook-like emoji reactions to tweets as part of a new feature test.

In addition to being able to “like” a tweet, those taking part can react with the tears of joy, thinking face, clapping hands, love heart, and crying face emojis shown in the image above. Twitter says the test may be expanded to more users later.

Other than the ability to like or favorite a tweet, Twitter doesn’t give you any other way to quickly react to someone else’s post. You can reply with any emoji of your choosing, of course, but that takes time and effort.

That could change in the future. Twitter is now testing a new feature called “Reactions” that, like on Facebook, give users the ability to send one of five emoji icons in response to a post.

Twitter adds emoji reactions for some users

Twitter says it chose these icons after conducting surveys and researching the most common words and emojis used in tweets. It wanted to keep the reactions “healthy,” so there are no angry or frustrated icons on offer.

Reactions are designed to give users a quick and simple way to convey how they feel about a post, “while also giving those Tweeting a better understanding of how their Tweets are received,” Twitter told Engadget.

This isn’t the first time Twitter has tried out features inspired by other platforms. Back in July, it tested the ability to downvote tweet replies — like posts on Reddit — so that unpopular opinions slowly fall to the bottom of the list.

For now, Reactions are available only to a select few Twitter users in Turkey as part of a limited-time test. However, Twitter says it may expand their availability to other regions later, depending on how things go.

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