Twitter Is Testing More Emojis for Reactions

November 16, 2015, 9:32 PM UTC
Hong Kong Rugby Sevens: beer, costumes and, somewhere, a result
Fans wearing emoji masks watch a rugby match of the Hong Kong Seven 2015 in Hong Kong, China, 28 March 2015. At the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens 120,000 people turn up, a lot of beer is drunk, colorful costumes are flaunted and Fiji normally wins. This year was the 40th anniversary of the tournament and the event followed the script. Fiji beat New Zealand 33-19 in the final to win for a record 15th time, and the crowd barely noticed. One of the loudest cheers of the day came when Zimbabwe scored a try against Russia. Neither nation is known for its rugby. There were also noisy jeers when Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying was announced at the prize giving cermony. The rugby forms a backdrop in Hong Kong to the crowd, the reveling thousands who turn up in coordinated costumes to party and drink beer, sold in one-liter plastic cups. Long lines form for the south stand of the Hong Kong Stadium, the most raucous spot to sit or stand. Long lines then also form for the bathrooms. Many people in the stadium weren't watching the rugby, instead swiveling away from the pitch to look at the people in the crowd behind them as they danced and threw rugby balls and glasses of beer at each other.
Photograph by AP

Not happy with Twitter’s recent move to “like” tweets with a heart instead of “faving” them with a star?

You might be able to take your pick from whatever emoji you want as it seems Twitter (TWTR) is mulling over giving users more options. Twitter user @_Ninj spotted the ability to select from multiple emoji to replace the heart, and told The Verge it was part of a developer build he accessed through a jailbroken version of the app on iOS. The feature also appears to be far from complete and the emoji return to hearts according to _Ninj, signaling that Twitter is still debating whether to even test it.

When reached for comment, a Twitter spokesperson simply responded with: 🙊

Twitter is only the latest social network to look into giving more options to users in how they interact with other’s content. Photo-sharing social network Path introduced a nearly-identical set of reaction emoji years ago, and office chat tool did the same a few months ago. But most recently, Facebook (FB) made waves when it began to test a similar feature after sticking to its iconic “like” thumb-up button since its inception years ago. Zuckerberg explained the change of heart by saying that there are emotions other than the “like” that users often want to express, and Facebook wants to give them ways to show empathy—whether its sadness, excitement, support, or even a red heart.

And since Facebook has received a patent for this feature, it’ll be interesting to see whether Twitter does venture into rolling it out.

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