“Love ya” and “I Love You”

This is something I heard Ryan Seacrest talking about on the radio the other day so I was just thinking about it. Is there a difference between “Love ya” and “I love you”? I think in some cases there is but in others there isn’t. For instance, if you say “Love ya” to a friend, it’s not that you love them like you would a boyfriend or a girlfriend. You’re just saying that that person is someone you really care about. In another case, if you’ve been dating someone and you say “Love ya”, it may mean that you aren’t quite ready to say those 3 little words yet. On the other hand, if you used to say “I love you” all the time to each other and then you end up shortening that to just “love ya”, I see no problem with that. My fiancé and I have started doing that and I don’t see a problem with it at all. We both know that we love each other very much and saying “love you” doesn’t mean we love each other any less.

What is anyone else's’ opinions on this?