Back in September, during a town hall Q&A at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, 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.”
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.
“As you can see, it’s not a “dislike” button,” wrote Facebook’s chief product officer Chris Cox in a post on the social network today, “though we hope it addresses the spirit of this request more broadly. We studied which comments and reactions are most commonly and universally expressed across Facebook, then worked to design an experience around them that was elegant and fun.”
That experience currently include emoji for “like, love, haha, yay, wow, sad, and angry.” You can deploy them on updates from your friends, Pages you follow, and brands you like. Or you might be able to, if Facebook decides to take this beyond its initial trial. Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s director of product, tells TechCrunch that Reactions will be tested in only two markets for now, Spain and Ireland, countries whose friend networks tend not to extend beyond national borders, making them ideal “closed test groups.” The biggest caveat: Facebook says it still needs to figure out whether it wants to tweak these empathetic emoji. “We’ll use the feedback from this to improve the feature and hope to roll it out to everyone soon,” Cox continued.
Either way, empathetic emoji are coming, at least for the residents of two countries, and probably for everyone else before long. Sure, Facebook could have opted for a more innovative take. And they still ultimately may. Then again, there’s no more universal language than a yellow circle frowny face with a tear drop falling down.
“As you can see, it’s not a “dislike” button,” wrote Facebook’s chief product officer Chris Cox in a post on the social network today, “though we hope it addresses the spirit of this request more broadly. We studied which comments and reactions are most commonly and universally expressed across Facebook, then worked to design an experience around them that was elegant and fun.”
That experience currently include emoji for “like, love, haha, yay, wow, sad, and angry.” You can deploy them on updates from your friends, Pages you follow, and brands you like. Or you might be able to, if Facebook decides to take this beyond its initial trial. Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s director of product, tells TechCrunch that Reactions will be tested in only two markets for now, Spain and Ireland, countries whose friend networks tend not to extend beyond national borders, making them ideal “closed test groups.” The biggest caveat: Facebook says it still needs to figure out whether it wants to tweak these empathetic emoji. “We’ll use the feedback from this to improve the feature and hope to roll it out to everyone soon,” Cox continued.
Either way, empathetic emoji are coming, at least for the residents of two countries, and probably for everyone else before long. Sure, Facebook could have opted for a more innovative take. And they still ultimately may. Then again, there’s no more universal language than a yellow circle frowny face with a tear drop falling down.
