Both extensions add a reaction layer where the platform doesn't have one. The difference is in the details: who can see the reactions, who maintains the code, and what the extension discloses about your data.
Per its Chrome Web Store card, Emoji Reactions in Twitter is a Chrome-only extension whose reactions are "visible only to other users of the same extension". The store card also discloses handling of authentication information. Its last release dated on the public store card is March 2022 — over four years before today.
Web Reactions is GPL-3, runs on Chrome / Firefox / Edge, supports a growing list of social, dev, and shopping sites, never asks for your Twitter or any other platform's credentials, and uses a one-time email verification to make sure each reaction count reflects a verified person rather than an anonymous install.
| Web Reactions | Emoji Reactions in Twitter | |
|---|---|---|
| Sites covered | Facebook, GitHub, Amazon — and growing | Twitter / X only |
| Reactions visible to | All Web Reactions users — aggregated public count | Only other users of the same extension |
| Source code | Public on GitHub, GPL-3 | Closed source. No public repository linked from the store card. |
| Privacy disclosure | Salted email hash, no raw email persisted, salted IP hash for rate-limit (policy) | Chrome Web Store card discloses handling of authentication information. |
| Identity model | One verified email = one account | Not publicly documented |
| Last public release | Continuously released from GitHub | 2022-03-05 per the Chrome Web Store card |
| Browsers | Chrome, Firefox, Edge | Chrome only |
Emoji Reactions in Twitter operates only on Twitter. If you also want reactions on a Facebook post you saw earlier, a GitHub repo, or an Amazon product, this extension simply has nothing for you. Web Reactions covers all three, with the same picker, same counts, and same history view across all of them. Adding new sites (Reddit, Stack Overflow, Hacker News, an internal company portal) means shipping a small reviewed adapter, not a fork.
Emoji Reactions in Twitter is closed source — the Chrome Web Store card doesn't link a public repository. That's not a crime, but it does mean you trust the binary you install without an independent way to verify what it does.
Web Reactions is GPL-3. The extension code is on GitHub. Security researchers can audit it; users can compile their own build; nobody has to take our word for anything.
Emoji Reactions in Twitter's reactions are only visible to other users of the same extension. That's a design choice with real consequences: a viral tweet's "real" reaction count is hidden behind extension adoption, and the same person on three browsers will count three times.
Web Reactions's counts are aggregated globally and gated on one-time email verification. The count under a Facebook post in Web Reactions means "this many verified Web Reactions users reacted with this emoji" — not "this many people who happened to install the same browser plugin you did".
Twitter/X has been through several major UI overhauls since March 2022 — including a brand change. Any DOM-touching extension that hasn't been updated since then is one Twitter release away from breaking. Web Reactions keeps site-specific adapters small and bundled with the extension, so X fixes can ship as focused extension updates instead of broad rewrites.
Pick Web Reactions if you want a multi-site, open-source, actively-maintained reaction extension with a verified-accounts identity model and clearly documented privacy posture. On X it adds the full palette next to every post; see emoji reactions for X (Twitter).
We genuinely couldn't find a case where Emoji Reactions in Twitter would be the better choice for a user today.
Leaning toward switching? The Emoji Reactions in Twitter alternative guide covers the move itself.
