Facebook has finally updated its ‘like’ button with a series of emojis dubbed ‘reactions, which are being rolled out gloablly this week.
The company is introducing Reactions instead of the much-requested dislike button, as a way of allowing people to react in more complex ways to updates.
Many people wanted a dislike button to press as a way of reacting to bad news, but the site worried that the tool might be used in negative ways.
Instead, it will give people six different emoji-based Reactions that they can post alongside the like button. Those will include “Love”, “Haha”, “Yay”, “Wow”, “Sad” and “Angry”, each of which has a corresponding picture.
Reactions can be accesed by clicking and holding on the Like button, which will still show underneath every post. Doing that wil bring up a menu of different reactions, and allow users to select of them.
When that is done, each of the reactions will join a tally underneath the post, adding up all of the different reactions.
The new tool will provide a new channel for advertisiers to tagert audienace on the social network. Overall, clicking the “like” button remains the most popular action on Facebook, with 7 in 10 active users doing this each month, according to Global Web Index.
However, almost a fifth are “un-liking” products or brands and about 1 in 10 are posting critical comments. Although it’s only small minorities who are currently undertaking these more negative actions, it’s not hard to see the potential difficulties which could accompany the introduction of a button that allows people to express negative sentiments in a quick and simple way.
Today we're launching a test of Reactions — a more expressive Like button. The Like button has been a part of Facebook for a long time. Billions of Likes are made every day, and Liking things is a simple way to express yourself.For many years though, people have asked us to add a "dislike" button. Not every moment is a good moment, and sometimes you just want a way to express empathy. These are important moments where you need the power to share more than ever, and a Like might not be the best way to express yourself.At a recent Townhall Q&A, I shared with our community that we've spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to give you better options for expressing yourself, while keeping the experience simple and respectful. Today we're starting to test this.Reactions gives you new ways to express love, awe, humor and sadness. It's not a dislike button, but it does give you the power to easily express sorrow and empathy — in addition to delight and warmth. You’ll be able to express these reactions by long pressing or hovering over the Like button. We’re starting to test Reactions in Ireland and Spain and will learn from this before we bring the experience to everyone. We hope you like this – or can better express how you’re feeling!
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, 8 October 2015