Facebook will begin rolling out its new set of 'reaction' buttons, worldwide, within the next few weeks. This was revealed in an interview with Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox yesterday.
These buttons are a response to users feeling the 'like' button on the social network was too limiting. Facebook said it would not introduce a dislike button. Instead, it decided to test six new reaction choices represented by emotional emoji.
The options will be the traditional 'like' represented by a thumbs up, 'love' represented by a heart, 'haha' by a laughing emoji, yay by a smiling emoji, wow by a surprised emoji, sad by a crying emoji, and angry by a red-faced emoji.
Arthur Goldstuck, World Wide Worx MD, previously said the reaction buttons are a fantastic idea. "I think it is important to have all six emotions, as they dispel the ambiguity of the like button."
The company said last year it would pilot the new features in Ireland and Spain on iOS, Android and desktops. Those two markets were chosen because both have largely national user bases without extensive international friend networks, so they work better as closed test groups.
Feedback from the pilot test has been positive. Cox cited the November Paris attacks as an example of people in the test countries making use of the different reactions, other than just the like button. The company now feels confident in expanding the feature globally.
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