Twitter Starts Testing Emoji Reactions to Tweets for Users in Turkey

Twitter is testing the option to react to a tweet with a variety of emoji icons. Turkey was selected as the first location to piloting the feature before considering a wider rollout to other regions. “Because a Like doesn’t always capture all the feels, we’ve added a range of emoji including 😂 , 🤔 , 👏 , 😢,” in a statement by Twitter. 

The emoji will arrive alongside the standard ❤️ or Like reaction. To access them, users in Turkey must long press the Like button, which will generate the whole range of emoji reactions.  The feature promises to make the social media platform more like Facebook, which already lets users react to a post with similar emoji icons. However, Twitter has notably decided to exclude the angry emoji 😡 to help keep conversations maintain that civil status.   

“We identified ‘entertained’ and ‘curious’ as the top emotions people feel when reading Tweet,” the company explained. “Although ‘frustration’ and ‘anger’ are also common emotions people feel while reading Tweets, and some people want to express disagreement with Tweets, we’re not incorporating these as emoji reactions right now. Our goal is always to support healthy public conversation and we want to see how our current set of emoji will impact conversations.”

The company selected the four emoji icons because they “resonate globally” among a variety of cultures, citing user surveys and research into the emoji most often tweeted. Twitter is also hopeful the feature will create more positive vibes over a platform infamous for harassment and toxic conversations.

“Reactions give people more ways to quickly show how they feel in conversations, while also giving those Tweeting a better understanding of how their Tweets are received, which could potentially lead to improved expression and participation in the public conversation,” the company added.

It’s amazing to know Twitter keeps its users top of mind by constantly removing and introducing friendly features users can engage with. Recall the micro-blogging and social media platform, Twitter recently shut down its fleet feature just 8-months after it was introduced to users.