Young schoolgirl relaxes on the school bus. She is checking her social media account on her smartphone. Graphics of emojis, like buttons and heart symbols flow out from her smartphone.
I regret to inform you that Tapbacks have come to Twitter DMs. That’s right: The worst part of texting is now in your Twitter inbox, too.
It looks like Twitter is calling it “reactions,” but the new feature, which is starting to roll out to Twitter users now, essentially works the same way as iMessage’s infamous Tapbacks. Instead of responding to a DM with, you know, words, you can append an emoji “reaction” to the message.
The official @Twitter account teased the feature as it started to roll out, sharing the string of emoji that will be available once the feature is live.
sliding into your DMs like 😂 😲 😢 ❤️ 🔥 👍 👎
— Twitter (@Twitter) January 22, 2020
And here’s what it looks like on desktop. The mobile version in Twitter’s app looks pretty much the same: You tap on the heart with a plus sign in order to add an emoji.
While Tapbacks have become a common part of messaging apps, they are somewhat controversial — mainly because they make texting confusing as hell because there isn’t a universally accepted definition for what a heart or fire emoji is supposed to mean.
On the other hand, I guess it could make sliding into someone’s DMs a little more lively. So, I guess there’s that. I’d still rather be able to search the content of my messages, but maybe that’s just me. 😢
