Facebook May Not Get A Dislike Button, But ‘Emoji Reactions’ Is Coming Soon

CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a declaration that could hugely change the way the social network’s nearly 1.5 billion users use the site: that Facebook is working on a type of “dislike” button. “People have asked about the dislike button for many years,” he said. “We’ve finally heard you and we’re working on this and we will deliver something that meets the needs of the larger community.”

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After some initial fuss, it was clarified that this wouldn’t exactly be a dislike button per se, but a kind of empathy button, a way to acknowledge significant life events when you see bad news from a friend on your feed, like a breakup or a natural disaster, without appearing to endorse them. Now, it’s official: Facebook has confirmed to Techcrunch that it has begun testing “Reactions,” six emoji that express a range of emotions beyond what a simple thumb can.

The company has started testing reactions buttons such as love, haha, yay, wow, sad and angry in addition to ‘like’ in Spain and Ireland. In sometime it will be rolled out to the rest of the world. So, you won’t really see a list of buttons, but they appear on long-pressing or hovering over the like button.

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The new reactions are simply GIFs, and it quite explains what made Facebook support GIFs that the company had been avoiding for years now. Facebook had once explained how GIFs can make News Feed chaotic. Needless to say, GIFs are among the most fun part of the web and one of the reason why websites like 9GAG and Imgur have so many followers.

Now, Facebook’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, has announced how the dislike button will work. Except it isn’t only a dislike button: When users hold a click on the “like” button, they’ll have the option to react to a post with a heart, a sad face, an angry face, or a stunned face meant to say “wow!” The feature will go live to Facebook users in Ireland and Spain on Thursday, and will be available in those countries on Facebook’s iOS app, Android app, and website. There’s no word yet on when the feature will debut in the U.S.

There is a reason why Facebook is one of the most successful social network and manages to make revenue – it has been evolving and essentially finding ways to make money. Zuckerberg doesn’t really want everyone downvoting a post, especially if its a brand/product or marketing campaign that brings the revenue.

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