Emojis have become a part and parcel of texting – not only do they help portray our reactions to some statement or media, but they also liven up our time online. And besides, who doesn’t love emojis? You may remember that Twitter had added the option of putting emoji reactions to DMs last year, and this time, the popular micro-blogging site is testing Tweet Reactions in Turkey for a limited time.
That’s right, Twitter users in Turkey will now be able to react to tweets with the laughing crying face, the sad face with a tear, the thinking hard face, the clapping hands, or the numerous emojis that are present almost on every social media platform and conversations. This comes months after Twitter had conducted surveys among its users about their reactions on a Facebook-like way to engage with tweets, and what emojis they would wish to communicate with. This feature will be available on iOS, Android, and the web, which will roll out across the country in the coming days. As for global expansion, Twitter said that it might expand the availability of the Reactions experiment to other regions based on the Turkey test. Twitter users in Turkey need to long-press the heart icon on a tweet to access Tweet Reactions.
“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,” Twitter said in a press release. “Our goal is always to support healthy public conversation and we want to see how our current set of emoji will impact conversations.”
Considering the fact that most of the users were concerned with receiving negative emoji feedback, this is probably a good move. The emojis will provide users with more ways to express how they felt about a tweet – something they can provide with an emoji with the click of a button and not writing a comment.
According to Twitter, the emoji reactions would be giving people an easier way to express how they felt, something that theoretically leads to improved expression and participation in public conversation, while also giving “those Tweeting a better understanding of how their Tweets are received.”
