Facebook is finally acknowledging that not everything is "likeable"
For all the people who wished Facebook had a "dislike" button, your wish just came true.
The social media giant finally released its new "reactions" feature, which will allow users to comment in emoji.
Facebook added "Haha," "Wow," "Sad," "Love," and, most importantly, "Angry" emoticon buttons as an extension of the company's iconic "Like" function. All you have to do is hold down the "Like" button, and voilà, Facebook will allow you to react to your friends' political news feed rants with a range of emoticons.
Last September, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly announced the company’s push to expand emoji past the "like" option.
"Not every moment is a good moment, right? And if you are sharing something that’s sad, like whether it's something in current events like the refugee crisis that touches you, or a family member passed away, then it may not be comfortable to 'like' that post," Zuckerberg said in a public Q&A.
Facebook chose the specific "reactions" after months of market and focus group testing. According to its blog post, Facebook used the most commonly commented words and stickers to decide which emoji would fare best. Users in Spain and Ireland have been using the emoticons since last year as part of the company's research.
Unlike most changes to Facebook's user interface, users have taken well to the addition of emoji reactions – possibly because they are familiar with the concept from other social media and communication tools.
As Vox explained last October, Facebook is playing a little bit of catch-up with this new feature. Tools like the messaging platform Slack also allow users to react to messages with a range of emoji. The now-defunct social media app Peach, which trended for a week in January, had the same feature, but with a different selection of emoji.