Twitter testing emoji-based replies to Tweets

Mark Zuckerberg’s social networking giant is experimenting with its own set of emoji reactions to let users react in more diverse ways, beyond its signature “like”.

Twitter user _Ninji was the one who noticed the ability to select multiple emoji from the heart, including the frown, the grimace, the party noisemaker and the 100. “Bet I’m gonna get a lot of thos”, _Ninji tweeted.

Twitter appears to be testing the system within a developer preview of the app, discovered by a user with a jailbroken iPhone that gave them access to hidden parts of the app. Earlier this month, Twitter replaced a star icon that meant “favorite” with a heart to convey a “like”.

If you haven’t been keeping up with your social media news, Twitter caused quite a bit of furor when it changed its star-shaped “favorite” button to a heart indicating a ‘like.’ Many users decried the change, but Twitter insisted it has already seen positive results.

If rolled out, allowing users to react using emojis could make for more personalized interactions, while providing a way for users to express themselves with the popularly-used characters.

The popularity of emojis and GIFs is increasing at a fast pace as they help users quickly communicate their emotions or reaction to an event.

Emojis are fast becoming a norm in digital communication with the “Face with tears of joy” becoming the first ever emoji to be crowned the Word of the Year 2015 by Oxford Dictionaries.