A star and a heart expressing the same approval, chosen by product decision rather than by meaning.
Both register approval and usually add the item to a list. Several large services replaced a star or a thumbs-up with a heart on the reasoning that a heart is a lighter, less judgemental gesture — a change in what people are willing to press, not a change in what the shape means.
A heart and a star both express approval; which one a service uses is a product decision, and users read them as broadly the same act.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | Favourite star symbol | Like heart symbol |
|---|---|---|
| Built from | stars | abstract |
| Favourite star symbol | Like heart symbol | |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | Five-pointed star | Two lobes meeting at a point |
| What it registers | Approval, or a rating | Approval or affection |
| Why a service picks it | Product decision | Product decision |
| Also forms a scale | Yes | No |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Like heart symbol — A heart and a star both express approval; which one a service uses is a product decision, and users read them as broadly the same act. | Commonly confused with Favourite star symbol — A heart and a star both express approval, and services use them interchangeably. |
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin and current use, not for contested detail or exact dates.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin and current use, not for contested detail or exact dates.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin and current use, not for contested detail or exact dates.
In principle the ribbon saves to a reading list and the star marks a favourite or contributes to a rating. In practice services use them interchangeably, so the same action carries a ribbon on one site and a star on the next. Users hesitate over which to press because there genuinely is no rule.
Both are drawn as one continuous decorative stroke with a closed loop and a tail that crosses back over itself, which is why a description of the shape alone reaches both. The clef is far taller, spans a stave, and its spiral encircles one specific line — that encircled line is the note G, and it is the only reason the shape is drawn where it is.
As punctuation the asterisk points at a footnote or marks a required field. In a filename pattern typed at a shell it matches any run of characters, including none — and the shell expands it against real filenames before the command runs, so the command never sees the pattern at all. That expansion is the part people are surprised by.
Check where the dot sits. A dot immediately to the right of the notehead adds half the note's value again — a dotted half note lasts three beats. A dot directly above or below the head means staccato: play it short and detached. One dot, two opposite instructions, and only position distinguishes them.