Skip to main content
The homepageVoxVox logo
The homepageVoxVox logo

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Twitter changed stars to hearts, and Twitter users went nuts

by Timothy B. Lee
Kitch Bain / Shutterstock

For years, if you liked a tweet you could click a little star icon to “favorite” it. But Twitter has decided that this concept is too confusing, so it’s rebranding it as a “like” button (that sounds familiar) and replacing the star with a heart:

This is part of a larger campaign by Twitter to expand the appeal of its social network. Twitter is extremely popular among journalists and the tech elite, but it has fallen far behind Facebook among ordinary users. Twitter has about 320 million users, compared with 1.5 billion Facebook users. That’s upsetting to Wall Street, which wants to see Twitter earn Facebook-like profits instead of the losses it’s been suffering quarter after quarter.

Twitter has been trying a variety of things to make itself more accessible, including a “moments” tab that displays curated collections of tweets about news stories and a “while you were away” feature that shows occasional users the most interesting tweets that appeared since they last logged in.

Unsurprisingly, lots of people on Twitter had opinions, and made jokes, about the change:

See More:

Most Popular

  1. Virginia Democrats’ irresponsible new plan to save their gerrymander
  2. Take a mental break with the newest Vox crossword
  3. We’re asking the wrong question about the hantavirus outbreak
  4. Trump’s China policy is nearly the exact opposite of what everyone expected
  5. Are far-right politics just the new normal?

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh