Today Facebook announced the global rollout of its new Reactions feature, a series of five new emojis that will supplement the Like button. The new Reactions, which include Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry in addition to the usual thumbs-up that signifies a Like, had already been implemented in a few markets, but as of today, everyone can reduce the entire spectrum of human emotion to just six little circles.
With over a billion users, it’s no surprise that an announcement of this kind — especially when people have been clamoring for a Dislike button for ages (Really, everyone? You can’t think of one way that could go horribly awry?) — is getting a fair bit of attention.
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Facebook users are usually pretty vocal about any change that developers make to the user interface, and we don’t mean that they’re not shy about dishing out positive feedback. We mean that users can be so resistant to any modification that in the Reactions announcement, Facebook packed the news of the change into soft, fluffy, soothing words, as though approaching a skittish fawn in the meadow:
“We understand that this is a big change, and want to be thoughtful about rolling this out. For more than a year we have been conducting global research including focus groups and surveys to determine what types of reactions people would want to use most.”
We’ve rounded up the best reactions to the news of Facebook’s Reactions.
Whoa. Meta.
Some people are pretty jazzed about the new feature, and it’s not hard to imagine why. How many times have you grappled with the question of whether or not to Like a friend’s status update when it says something like, “Had to take my cat to the vet to treat his painful feline hemorrhoids. Poor Professor Softypaws won’t even make eye contact now.”
I mean, is that something you really want to Like?
https://twitter.com/ScottBaltic/status/702506673752121345
In social media, there are always winners and losers, right Ello?
Twitter: "We'll give you a .gif button."
Facebook: "I'll give you reactions."
Ello: "Y'all…remember me?" pic.twitter.com/PaWbPkZ0tz— Brown Anthony™ (@anthelonious) February 24, 2016
Then again, more options mean new potential issues for those of us with fumblefingers.
I’ve had the new Facebook reactions for 20 minutes and I already accidentally “wow”ed the status of someone I haven’t talked to in 10 years
— Megan Hess (@mhess4) February 24, 2016
While others felt the little faces were much more open to interpretation.
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Others were up front about the fact that they didn’t like the change, not that we blame the poor weatherpeople that will now be on the receiving end of countless Angries.
You have to appreciate how succinctly this post describes Facebook angst.
This one is also very accurate.
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Predictably, people felt totally cheated by the omission of a Dislike button, which is understandable since a thumbs-down is literally the only way to express your dissatisfaction with something,
https://twitter.com/AmyKeisling/status/702505155095302144
It even got weirdly political.
https://twitter.com/hogeyz/status/702514463094632448
Of course, not everyone was content to merely complain about the changes. These suggestions for the next round of Reactions prove there’s always value in being proactive.
The Facebook Reactions that we all secretly want… pic.twitter.com/uWWB2Mv0dn
— Revolution Bars (@RevolutionBars) February 24, 2016
If you’re interested in using the Reactions yourself, all you have to do is refresh your browser if you’re on a desktop and hover over the Like button to get the full range. On mobile, make sure your Facebook app is updated, then simply press the Like to swipe between options. Facebook released this eerily silent instructional video if you still need an assist.
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