Facebook Brings Variety to “Like” with New “Reactions” Feature
Gone are the days when one would simply express joy, pleasure, happiness, agreement with a simple like button on Facebook. After all, human beings have a lot more expressions than that. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has finally accepted the fact and has globally launched 5 new emotions, called ‘Reactions’, alongside the “Like” button.
Zuckerberg took to Facebook (obviously) to announce the launch of the new feature.
“Today is our worldwide launch of Reactions — the new Like button with more ways to express yourself.
Not every moment you want to share is happy. Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating. Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years, but not because people want to tell friends they don’t like their posts. People wanted to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions.”
As seen above, the 5 new reactions include love, haha, wow, sad, and angry. Facebook still doesn’t feel the need for a dislike button to propagate more hate on social media than it already exists. To access the other emotions, all you have to do is move your cursor over the “Like” button and the new faces will appear. For iOS and Android users, you’ll need to press and hold the “Like” button until the “Reactions” pop up.
“Not every moment is a good moment, right? And if you are sharing something that’s sad, like whether it’s something in current events like the refugee crisis that touches you, or a family member passed away, then it may not be comfortable to ‘like’ that post,” Zuckerberg said in a public Q&A.
So far, users have taken well to the new emoji reactions, and, according to Zuckerberg, the “Love” reaction is the most popular of them. “Love is the most popular reaction so far, which feels about right to me!”
Now, while this new feature is a breath of fresh air for users all over, it is also a very interesting new feature that will benefit Facebook in monetary terms as well. As you must be well aware by now, Facebook always collects user data by seeing the user’s interests, likes and whatnot. It uses the data collected to bring you tailored advertisements and suggestions based on user’s interests. You can now, image how the algorithm will work once it starts collecting data from the ‘Reactions’ features.
The company gathers more and more data on how the user reacts to posts and is able to provide richer content on the user’s News Feed based on the user’s interest. So far, Facebook was abe to gather data from the “Like” button, but will now be able to get a more precise idea with the help of the new emoticon reactions. Now, “loving” a post could mean you’re more interested in something that you only “liked” before, and this, over time, will help Facebook prioritise and see on the top of your Feed what you’re more likely to ‘love’ rather than just ‘like’. The feature has already begun rolling out globally and will hit India soon enough.
