We’ve all experienced the predicament of seeing a sad Facebook status and wanting to show support, but clicking Like doesn’t convey the emotion we want to express. There has been talk of the possibility of a Dislike button.. but Facebook may be ready to take it even further.
Facebook is working on a new system for users to acknowledge certain updates where the “like” feature isn’t necessarily appropriate. The social network is currently trying out emoji reactions in Ireland and Spain. The new reactions include Love, Haha, Yay, Wow, Sad and Angry, in addition to Like, and show up as emoji under posts. The emoji animate as a user hovers their cursor or slides their finger across them.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the development of new reactions last month, saying the social network wanted to allow users to express more emotions without having to comment. While some users may be 🙁 that Dislike isn’t an option, Zuckerberg has previously stated that Facebook likely wouldn’t add that particular reaction to avoid the up-or-down voting system found in other sites like Reddit.
Facebook hopes to roll out the reactions feature worldwide soon. Are there any others you’d like to see instead? I’m curious what the stats will look like: “Your post has 23 Likes, 15 Smileys, 2 Hearts, 1 Wow, 2 Gang Signs, and 1 Slice of Pizza.” Yes!! I think? -Mandi@1063RL