Twitter’s much-derided decision to switch from a star based favorite button to a heart shaped like button may be short lived with the messaging come microblogging provider reported to be testing multiple emoji based support options instead.

Discovered by Twitter user @_Ninji via using a tweak called Flex that is able to force-enable features on a developer build of the Twitter app, the yet to be announced feature appears to offer a variety of emoji reactions in addition to the “heart” including the frown, the grimace, the party noisemaker, and something called the 100 (literally the number 100) according to The Verge.

It’s not entirely clear from the shots posted to Twitter how it works, but it appears to be a pop-up menu when a user hovers over the heart and includes 3 pages of 12 emoji each.

I can't believe they're finally letting me ? tweets
(The best part is that it's not even a joke, I just found this…) pic.twitter.com/cyJ6Lmfhgx

— Still a dog, yep (@_Ninji) November 16, 2015

I love how the unfinished Twitter emoji favourites feature lets you ? tweets. Bet I'm gonna get a lot of those pic.twitter.com/EimC2komja

— Still a dog, yep (@_Ninji) November 16, 2015

Ninji writes that the feature at this stage feels incomplete, however, it may be there for a future set of A/B testing yet to be announced.

The potential move, while perhaps in response to the negative reaction the heart/ like change received, would be an odd one for Twitter given the justification for the original change to a heart/ like option was said by Product Manager Akarshan Kumar at the time as being “easier and more rewarding to use… [as] the heart…is a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones” as the previous favourite option was “confusing, especially to newcomers;” three pages of emoji (36 in total) is a whole lot more confusing to newcomers than hitting a star to favorite a tweet.

There could be another reason though behind the move with Drew Olanoff at TechCrunch cleverly suggesting that the implementation of emoji options could provide a way to make money for Twitter via sponsored temporary promotional emoji.

Emoji seem to be in at the moment with Facebook, Inc. testing various empathy/ sympathy buttons as an alternative to its famous like button, as well as unicorn messaging service Slack, Inc. recently rolling out the option of emoji for post reactions.

Twitter for its part has only responded publicly to the reports with a speak no evil monkey emoji, perhaps suggesting that there may be something to it.

Image credit: otto-yamamoto/Flickr/CC by 2.0