The world was rattled last month when Facebook announced the development of a “Dislike” button. Now a preview of the new feature has surfaced online.
Update: The new feature is called “Reactions,” as Zuckerberg revealed in a post on Thursday. See a demonstration of the feature below. It looks fun to use!
Today we're launching a test of Reactions — a more expressive Like button. The Like button has been a part of Facebook for a long time. Billions of Likes are made every day, and Liking things is a simple way to express yourself.For many years though, people have asked us to add a "dislike" button. Not every moment is a good moment, and sometimes you just want a way to express empathy. These are important moments where you need the power to share more than ever, and a Like might not be the best way to express yourself.At a recent Townhall Q&A, I shared with our community that we've spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to give you better options for expressing yourself, while keeping the experience simple and respectful. Today we're starting to test this.Reactions gives you new ways to express love, awe, humor and sadness. It's not a dislike button, but it does give you the power to easily express sorrow and empathy — in addition to delight and warmth. You’ll be able to express these reactions by long pressing or hovering over the Like button. We’re starting to test Reactions in Ireland and Spain and will learn from this before we bring the experience to everyone. We hope you like this – or can better express how you’re feeling!
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, October 8, 2015
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Earlier: As Mark Zuckerberg teased in September, the purpose of the “Dislike” button will be to “express empathy.” Leaked screenshots reveal that this will be accomplished by letting people select from a range of emotions.
Beginning very soon, Facebook will launch a test version of the dislike-ing feature in Ireland and Spain. After pressing “Like” on a post, the user will see seven emojis they can use to express how they’re feeling. Here’s an example from Engadget:
The emojis will go beyond a simple “Dislike” button because a friend will be able to choose what type of emotion they’re feeling. For example, a sad post may receive more of the heart, sad face, or angry face emojis, while happier stories will receive more of the other options.
Somewhere in the post you’ll be able to see a breakdown of which emojis everyone selected.
Presumably, Facebook will be playing around with the set of emojis they offer during this testing period. We wouldn’t be surprised if we see a couple of these disappear, or a couple more join the line-up. We’d also like to see seasonal emojis pop up — how about a scared ghost emoji during October?
Those of us who feel stuck between a rock and a hard place over pressing “Like” on a bad story (“Should I really hit ‘like’ on this post about my friend’s serious injury? If I don’t, it’ll be like I ignored them. I HATE THIS.”) can now relax when we want to acknowledge someone’s post, no matter what the subject.
Facebook has not revealed when they intend to launch this feature to the masses.