Facebook is finally moving beyond the Like.
The social network announced today that it will begin testing six emoji to enable people to react to posts with emotions other than a simple like. Now, Facebook users will be able to express love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness and anger with a quick click or tap.
The new feature will start testing today in Ireland and Spain before an expected rollout in the rest of the world later this year. The move isn’t a surprise. Facebook users have been begging the social network for a dislike button for years, and last month CEO Mark Zuckerberg said to expect a test soon. Except, Zuckerberg said, it wouldn’t be a dislike button but something that didn’t lead to a situation where people were downvoting posts.
Emoji are an obvious solution, one that already it being used by publishers like BuzzFeed and communications services like Slack and by Facebook users who drop stickers into comments.
Facebook’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, explained in a Facebook post today:
“As you can see, it’s not a “dislike” button, though we hope it addresses the spirit of this request more broadly. We studied which comments and reactions are most commonly and universally expressed across Facebook, then worked to design an experience around them that was elegant and fun. Starting today Ireland and Spain can start loving, wow-ing, or expressing sympathy to posts on Facebook by hovering or long-pressing the Like button wherever they see it.”
The emoji options will appear across mobile and desktop versions of Facebook on posts from friends, Pages or advertisers. People pressing or hovering over the Like button will be presented with the emoji options. There will be no option to turn off the feature on posts.
For brands and publishers, the new feature will provide richer data about how people are reacting to their content. It will also give Facebook more detailed information on user preferences, which no doubt will get fed into the algorithm that determines what people see in their News Feeds.
Here’s a Facebook video showing the new feature in action:
Today we’re launching a pilot test of Reactions — a more expressive Like button. As you can see, it’s not a “dislike” button, though we hope it addresses the spirit of this request more broadly. We studied which comments and reactions are most commonly and universally expressed across Facebook, then worked to design an experience around them that was elegant and fun. Starting today Ireland and Spain can start loving, wow-ing, or expressing sympathy to posts on Facebook by hovering or long-pressing the Like button wherever they see it. We’ll use the feedback from this to improve the feature and hope to roll it out to everyone soon. Posted by Chris Cox on Thursday, October 8, 2015
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