Facebook is testing a new way for users to express their emotions on the social networking site, other than the generic “Like” button.
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The idea behind rejecting a specific “Dislike” button is that it would bring too much negativity to a platform that’s supposed to be about sharing.
The team picked the six reactions by consulting with sociologists, according to Bloomberg.
The new reactions will include symbols for “angry”, “sad”, “wow”, “haha”, “yay” and “love”. Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook, had also shared about the additional options during a forum held in September previous year. Well, now they’re being rolled out, with a host of new buttons which will stop you having to give a thumbs-up to someone’s upsetting status update.
Facebook said it has almost 1.6 billion users, and of those, 1.4 billion use the service on mobile devices. The button proved a problem because it was “not universally understood”, according to a spokesperson.
Facebook’s News Feed will also show a tally of how many wows, hahas and loves each post generates, which could potentially become an insightful marketing tool for businesses. The like button will remain but users will be able to express more precise emotions with the “reactions”.
Reactions appear as animated emoticons and pop-up whenever the Like button is long-pressed on mobile apps, or hovered-over in your desktop browser.
“As you can see, it’s not a “dislike” button, though we hope it addresses the spirit of this request more broadly”, Cox wrote on his Facebook page.
For the unfamiliar, Reactions will offer Facebook users alternate options to respond to a Facebook post instead of just the current Like.
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In January, Facebook began taking orders for a consumer version of the Oculus Rift, a head-mounted virtual reality unit.
