“I think people have asked about the dislike button for many years”, he said, adding that Facebook had been working on the feature for awhile and wanted to implement it in a way that didn’t feel like you were down-voting a post.
Advertisement
The feature has been in testing for months in different regions of the world, including Ireland, Spain, Japan and Portugal, where Facebook took surveys and gathered information on how people actually use the feature.
The reason Facebook decided to not make a Dislike button is the same reason why it has expanded the Like button with Reactions: the actions of liking and disliking are both too simple for the vast array of content that’s shared on Facebook every day.
These reactions are available right now, although they’re not immediately visible.
Social networking giant Facebook today launched extension of “like” button by adding emotions such as love, HaHa and Sad.
During a Q&A in September 2015, Zuckerberg mentioned that Facebook was working on a “dislike” button. Who wants to “like” the fact that your pet passed away or that you are going in to have surgery? (Of course, one could argue that is what comments are for.) It can also, of course, provide Facebook with more nuanced data about what you actually mean when you “like” a post – valuable information for its ever-advancing algorithms. If someone posts bad news, for example, you want to acknowledge that you saw it. But a Like button not only falls short a lot of times, it can be downright inappropriate. Note: Another emoji that Facebook had been testing, Yay, didn’t make the cut.
The changes will be rolled out to users over the next few days.
Advertisement
Facebook says it made adjustments to the feature based on feedback and will continue to refine the product as it rolls out more widely. This time, the Like button is getting an update that will let users react to posts to be more emotionally expressive.
