The social network has said it wants to eventually boost the new product’s targeting capabilities, and tailor posts to users by weighing the different emojis they’ve been using. The “Reactions” feature will essentially expand the options available to the users to express their reactions to posts; giving them five new ways to respond, other than the “Like’ button”.
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Facebook has already tested the Reaction feature in a few markets like Spain and Ireland since previous year and received positive feedback. The reaction bar appears when users hover over the “like” button on a post and, accompanying the like button, the new reaction bar includes five emotions: “love”, “haha”, “wow”, “sad”, and “angry”.
Facebook ultimately chose these six reactions for their universal appeal – something that could be understood around the world.
There has been a strong demand of a dislike button on Facebook for quite sometime.
It is worthy to note that the update will take a day or more to roll out to everyone, hence, users are advised to be patient if they are yet to see them. On the web, you don’t need to make any changes to settings. The three most popular reactions will be shown on each post.
Tweaks to the New Feed algorithm to try to give more prominence to stories that people find meaningful.
Notably absent from the new emoticons is a “dislike’ button, something sought for years by Facebook users, but which has been ruled out by the California company to avoid a barrage of hateful expressions”.
Facebook member Greg Kreiger said the “angry” button was good enough for him.
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“We studied which comments and reactions are most commonly and universally expressed across Facebook, then worked to design an experience around them that was elegant and fun”.
