Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the popular social networking site would launch a set of new reactions, or emojis, on Friday.
The six new emoji depict various expressions, from an open mouth to express surprise to a scowling red face for anger. The other four emotions represent love, laughter, sadness and a supportive cheer.
Meet the new Reactions.
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, October 8, 2015
The new emojis icons will be available to most Facebook users in Spain and Ireland.
Adam Mosseri, who oversees Facebook’s news feed, said the company would evaluate how people in those two countries use the new buttons and refine them, before expanding the rollout to the company’s 1.5 billion users worldwide later this year.
“How do people use it? Is this the right set of reactions?” Mr. Mosseri said in an interview.
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
Zuckerberg had said last month that the company planned to test a way to “dislike” a post. “I do think it’s important to give people more options than just like,” he said.
And it was also important to pick emotions and emoji that translated well globally. “We tried the find the ones that are most universally used,” Mosseri said.
He added that Facebook chose which emotions to add by looking at which virtual stickers people used most frequently in comments on posts.
