As anyone who has logged on to Facebook today knows, the company has launched a new feature called Reactions that lets users do more than just “like” a post. Like its name suggests, the Reaction option allows users to quickly and easily react to a News Feed post by using one of several new emojis: Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry.
Introducing ReactionsToday is our worldwide launch of Reactions -- the new Like button with more ways to express yourself. Not every moment you want to share is happy. Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating. Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years, but not because people want to tell friends they don't like their posts. People wanted to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions. I've spent a lot of time thinking about the right way to do this with our team. One of my goals was to make it as simple as pressing and holding the Like button. The result is Reactions, which allow you to express love, laughter, surprise, sadness or anger. Love is the most popular reaction so far, which feels about right to me!
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Facebook said it has been conducting global research for more than a year to come up with these new options, including using focus groups and surveys. “We also looked at how people are already commenting on posts and the top stickers and emoticons as signals for the types of reactions people are already using to determine which reactions to offer,” Facebook’s Product Manager Sammi Krug said in a blog post.
In addition to letting Facebook users express various feelings about what one of their friends said, the new feature will also help the company determine which types of posts you would like to see more of. “In the beginning, it won’t matter if someone ‘likes,’ ‘wows’ or ‘sads’ a post – we will initially use any Reaction similar to a Like to infer that you want to see more of that type of content,” said Krug in another blog post. “Over time we hope to learn how the different Reactions should be weighted differently by News Feed to do a better job of showing everyone the stories they most want to see.”
Additionally, Reactions will help businesses and page owners “better understand how people are responding to their content on Facebook,” said Krug.
As to where the much asked for “dislike” button is, Facebook Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page that he wanted to “keep the experience simple and respectful.”
“Reactions gives you new ways to express love, awe, humor and sadness. It’s not a dislike button, but it does give you the power to easily express sorrow and empathy – in addition to delight and warmth,” explained Zuckerberg.
