Facebook plans to add emoji buttons with their corresponding one-word meaning alongside the “like” button. These will take place of the rumored “dislike” button in efforts to sympathize, support, and better express feelings towards posts.
In the past year, the social network experimented with a “sympathize” button as a result of a staff meeting referred to as a hackathon, which is essentially a brainstorming session, The Huffington Post reports.
After that idea fell through, research was conducted to better assess the needs of users. “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,” Facebook CPO Chris Cox wrote about the work that went into the launch of the new buttons.
The emotionally charged buttons are said to express feelings of love, yay, ha ha, wow, angry, and sad. The implementation of this new feature is set to first hit Ireland and Spain last week, The Associated Press reported. Insert Facebook “yay” face here.
Today we’re launching a pilot test of Reactions — a more expressive Like button. As you can see, it’s not a “dislike”...
Posted by Chris Cox on Thursday, October 8, 2015