Facebook has also confirmed that the Reactions will have the same impact on ad delivery as the Like button.
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Facebook users have long complained the “like” button is too one-dimensional and isn’t an appropriate way to react to certain posts, such as when people post sad or disturbing news.
Facebook has already been testing out the Reactions in a few markets since previous year.
Facebook has said that now the reactions are only available to use on posts, pictures and videos and not on individual comments. After years of being the sole button on your News Feed, you can now express your like, love, amusement, excitement, sadness, or anger. To add a reaction instead of a Like button to the post, users will have to hold down the Like button on mobile or hover over the Like button on desktop. The new addition will give all users the option of posting a reaction, the site previously only had the Like button.
According to a Guardian report from September a year ago, Mark Zuckerberg said that the company was working on a “dislike” button to ship it, but in reality, Facebook was working on an “alternative to the Like button” to express shorthand emotions on its posts, as this Marketingland report indicates. “Love is the most popular reaction so far, which feels about right to me!”
Unfortunately, Facebook is limiting the use of the emoji to one reaction per post, for now at least.
Users can select one of the five new emotions by pressing down on the Like button on mobile devices and hovering over it on a computer desktop. A tray with the six new reactions should pop up, and the user can then tap anyone of them.
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They also looked at how people were already commenting on posts and the top stickers and emoticons as signals for the types of reactions people were already using to determine which reactions should be launched.
