What is Twitter Changed The Color Of The Like Button?

It is a recurring bait tweet on Twitter in which a user claims the heart-shaped like button has shifted color, prompting other users to tap and check, which gives the original poster an accidental like.

Where did Twitter Changed The Color Of The Like Button come from?

The earliest clearly false version was posted on March 2nd, 2020, by @PxrisOfficial, whose tweet drew only two likes over the following two years.

What does Twitter Changed The Color Of The Like Button mean?

The phrase works as engagement bait. Readers who tap the heart to inspect the color unknowingly like the tweet, so the poster harvests interactions from anyone curious enough to look.

How do you use Twitter Changed The Color Of The Like Button?

A typical post pairs the claim with no screenshot, often tied to a current event such as the 2021 Nigerian protests or Elon Musk's 2022 takeover push, so readers feel compelled to verify the alleged change themselves.

Is Twitter Changed The Color Of The Like Button still popular?

It is a classic recurring gag that peaked around Musk's 2022 takeover announcement, when versions such as @Chooka2K's May 28th, 2022, tweet reportedly collected close to 300,000 likes.

Twitter Changed The Color Of The Like Button

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Published October 23, 2026

Twitter Changed The Color Of The Like Button is a recurring bait tweet where a user claims the heart icon shifted shades, tricking curious readers into tapping the button to check and accidentally giving the poster a like. First documented as an obvious prank in March 2020, the gag kept resurfacing on the platform and spiked hard around Elon Musk's 2022 takeover announcement6.

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Overview

The joke works on a simple reflex. A user tweets some version of "Twitter changed the color of the like button," and readers who want to confirm or deny the claim glance at the heart icon, often tapping it in the process and leaving a like on the very tweet that fooled them6. Because the button toggles on the first tap, the poster collects engagement from skeptics and believers alike before anyone realizes they got had.

Variations lean on whatever Twitter news is active at the time. Some posts credit a vague redesign, others invoke a specific executive or political cause, and a few piggyback on real UI tweaks to blur the line between prank and fact3. The format carries over from older social-media bait, including the "blink your eyes if you can read this" and "double tap to see" gags, but the Twitter heart gave it a one-button payoff that fits the platform's quick-scroll habits.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Creator

@PxrisOfficial

Date

2020

Twitter's heart-shaped like button itself has a documented history. In November 2015, the company replaced its yellow "favorite" star with a red heart and renamed the action a "like," explaining in a statement that the heart was more expressive and tested well with newer users1. That red heart became the fixed reference point every later prank played against.

The earliest obviously false version of the color-change bait was posted on March 2nd, 2020, by Twitter user @PxrisOfficial, whose tweet pulled only two likes over the next two years and sat largely unnoticed as a prototype2. Similar posts followed in the months after, treating the premise as a reusable troll setup rather than a one-off joke6.

How It Spread

The bait picked up speed through 2021 as politically charged versions appeared. On June 12th, 2021, Nigerian users circulated tweets claiming the like button had turned green in solidarity with protesters against President Muhammadu Buhari's government, with one post by @davidchibike collecting close to 1,200 likes within a year3. Protest supporters pushed back on the hoax, including @PapaRiri9, who called out the fake solidarity post and received roughly 40 likes for the correction4.

In October 2021, a different thread of posts described the heart as shifting from red to a pinker hue, and in this case many replies agreed the change looked real, though Twitter never issued an official statement about any such tweak. One widely shared example from October 10th, 2021, by @Karabo_Mokgoko gathered over 16,500 likes across eight months5.

The gag hit its loudest run after Elon Musk announced his plan to acquire Twitter in 2022. Posts falsely attributing a color change to Musk circulated through spring and summer, and a May 28th, 2022, tweet by @Chooka2K reportedly collected nearly 300,000 likes in about three weeks, making it one of the highest-engagement versions on record6.

Timeline

2015-11-03

Twitter replaces the yellow favorite star with a red heart-shaped like button, setting the baseline color later pranks claim is changing[1].

2020-03-02

@PxrisOfficial posts the earliest documented obviously false "like button color changed" tweet, which gets only two likes over two years[2].

2021-06-12

@davidchibike and other Nigerian users falsely claim the like button turned green in support of anti-Buhari protesters[3].

2021-06-12

@PapaRiri9 publicly calls out the green-button hoax as fake solidarity with the protest movement[4].

2021-10-10

@Karabo_Mokgoko tweets that the heart shifted from red to pink, drawing over 16,500 likes with many replies agreeing the hue looked different[5].

2022-05-28