When news broke out that Facebook was working on a "dislike" button, the internet went wild with speculation. But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, had clearly stated that they were infact planning to expand the like button to show empathy, not just a mere like.
Today Facebook unveiled "Reactions", six empathy emojis to compliment the like button. So instead of just the original thumbs up response you can respond with love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness and anger. At present the feature will be going live in Ireland and Spain as a pilot test and will be rolled out soon to everyone based on user feedback.
People are sharing more online that ever before, and with such a lot of content going online we have very little to no time to actually go through every update let alone respond to it with text. This is the reason behind Facebook Reactions. An easier way to communicate how you feel about something shared without having to explain it in writing.
The Like button removed all the complexities of sharing on Facebook. You could simply hit the Thumbs up button to let people what you liked or wanted to share. But anything more complicated like expressing sorrow/happiness over your friend's doughnut falling to the floor were not possible, atleast not without a witty comment. Jokes aside, this would make much easier to express empathy on sad posts rather than just hitting the like button.
Given how easy the "Like" button was, Facebook Reactions isn't adding any complexity. On the desktop you simply hover/click on the Thumbs-up button to get the new 7 options you see above. On mobile too you simply long tap and drag through the option you want to select.
For Facebook Page owners and publishers, segregated data for these reactions will be available in Facebook Analytics when the global roll-out begins. Moreover, your reactions will allow Facebook to curate your feed content better including advertising. So, what do you feel about Facebook Reactions? Hit us in the comments section below.
