Facebook is testing out new reactions beyond 'Like'
The long wait for a way to express how angry you are with a single click on Facebook is nearly over. Soon, you might be able to express not just anger, but also sadness, love, and “Wow.”
Facebook announced today that it’s going to “begin testing six new emotional reactions,” the New York Times informs us, and that those reactions will take the form of Emoji. You can see the “emotional reactions” below:
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Like, Love, Haha, Yay, Wow, Sad, and Angry. Yep, those are definitely sentiments. This follows on Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement last month that, after years of anticipation from users, Facebook was working on something like a dislike button.
The Times spoke to Adam Mosseri, who runs Facebook’s news feed, and who told the paper that the new reactions were chosen by “looking at which virtual stickers people used most frequently in comments on posts.” The new options are being tested in Spain and Ireland, where they’ll be available later this week. (In Spain or Ireland? Get in touch, I wanna hear about what’s happening with these).
Based on the preview TechCrunch was given, it looks like the emoji will appear in a lil’ pop up window that you can choose from, not unlike the autocorrect options on an iPhone.
It goes almost without saying that some people will be upset that there isn’t a little thumbs down button with which to judge content, like a tiny emperor ruling their mini content-fiefdom. But really, don’t worry: it’ll be fine.
Ethan Chiel is a reporter for Fusion, writing mostly about the internet and technology. You can (and should) email him at [email protected]