Update: Facebook shares how it’s approaching Reactions when it comes to Pages and reach in the News Feed.
Last fall, we learned that Facebook was preparing to give users “Reactions,” a new way beyond the like button to express what you feel about a post. Early rumors suggested a dislike button, but this goes further than that, allowing you to express empathy and other feelings.
Finally, Facebook is acknowledging that not everything is a matter of thumbs up or no thumbs.
To call it like it really is, we’re basically dealing with emoji. The choices are: Like (as usual), Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, or Angry. The like continues to be a thumb up while love is a heart, and the rest are faces. To use one, hold the Like buton down on mobile or hover over it in desktop to see the options.
“We understand that this is a big change, and want to be thoughtful about rolling this out,” says product manager Sammi Krug. “For more than a year we have been conducting global research including focus groups and surveys to determine what types of reactions people would want to use most. We also looked at how people are already commenting on posts and the top stickers and emoticons as signals for the types of reactions people are already using to determine which reactions to offer.”
Reactions have been testing in a few markets since last year, and Facebook says the feedback has been positive so far. The feature is now rolling out to everyone around the world.
Image via Facebook