Facebook users will now have plenty of options to like someone’s post/update. But the latest feature will be available first to residents of Ireland and Spain.
Facebook and Its New Reactions Feature – Not Dislike Button
On Friday, Facebook will begin to include one of its latest features that go beyond the “thumb-up” button to respond to a certain post/update.
Dubbed as Reactions, users can now express happiness, shock, sadness, anger, love or laughter.
Long-Press the Like Button
You can’t easily see those reactions. But when you long-press the like button, you’ll find an array of options that will pop-up.
For laptop and desktop users, they need to hover their mouse over the “like” button.
The post will also note the number of each reaction has received.
Ireland and Spain
Reactions will first be tested in the real-world in Ireland and Spain. The company will use the feedback of these users to make improvements. The launching of the buttons globally might be sooner than you think.
Just a month ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his team was working on providing their users the much-awaited, most requested dislike button to add to its most popular like button.
To follow up on that announcement, Mark announced that his team is rolling out this latest feature, with six new emojis that you can press or click, in addition to just liking the post/update.
For many years, the company has resisted to include a dislike button on its social networking site. This new feature may not be the “dislike” button that users are waiting or hoping for but it will give you an array of options to express what you feel about the post.
It does avoid the updown or downvote post that you see on YouTube or Reddit.
Some analysts think that adding a dislike button just like on YouTube or Reddit might discourage users to share their posts on Facebook, especially if they received an overwhelmingly negative reaction. This is truly something that the company doesn’t want.
Mark did acknowledge that this latest feature isn’t the dislike button that he promised a month ago. However, his team has studied which reactions are commonly expressed on Facebook. From there, they designed something that would truly express what the users feel about the post, in a more elegant and fun way.
Before they make the change for every user, the company will initially rollout the feature in those two countries mentioned. From there, they can make changes based on what emojis work and what doesn’t work.
For business owners having a Facebook page, they can fully understand the response of their audience on the post they’ve published.
In September, Mark said that Facebook users don’t want to vote down others. What they really want is just to express support when their friends on Facebook share something bad or sad.
The Reactions feature will help the users to express sympathy. With it, you no longer have to like the sad post. You can now express that you fully understand and sympathize with the user.
What do you think of the Reactions feature? Do you think it’s better than the dislike button? I think it is.
