Twitter could be adding some new emojis to augment its formerly star-shaped, currently heart-shaped Like button, according to app researcher Jane Manchun Wong. The assets Wong found — which have been reliable predictions of future features in the past — show “cheer,” “hmm,” “sad,” and “haha” emoji reactions, though some currently only have a placeholder emoji.
Facebook has had a similar set of reactions since 2016. But Wong’s leak shows that Twitter could be taking a slightly different path when it comes to which moods it wants users to express: while it has laughing and sad expressions in common with Facebook, Twitter may also include a makes-you-think and cheer option. Twitter doesn’t seem to have the “angry” expression that Facebook does, but that may be because anger on Twitter is already handled by the reply and quote tweet functions.
We’ve seen another glance at this feature when Twitter asked users about the addition of emoji reactions in a survey a few months ago. In response to a request for comment, Twitter told us the same thing it did last time: that it is “always exploring additional ways for people to express themselves in conversations.”
Twitter seems to be busy with new features recently: we’ve heard rumors of a premium subscription service, and we’ve seen the rollout of larger pictures, its audio-based Spaces feature, and tests of a tip jar feature. The company even started back up its verification program (before pausing it again just over a week later). Perhaps the only thing Twitter isn’t working on is a theme park to deal with Florida’s deplatforming law, but considering the disparate acquisitions it’s been making of late, it’s too early to ignore the possibility.
