Aside from the "Like" button, Facebook will also allow its users to express different emotions with six empathetic emoji.
The "Reaction" buttons are an alternative to the "Like" button that we use in Facebook. This will offer the users different expressions from love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness and anger. Said service was on trial on Friday which comes weeks after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that they were considering the addition of other buttons for Facebook, which was believed by many that it was the "Dislike" button.
"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," Zuckerberg said according to News Max. "Reactions give 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."
Counters for each reaction will be displayed on the status as to how many likes, loves, happy faces and other reactions received.
"People come to Facebook to share all kinds of things – whether that's updates that are happy, sad, funny or thought-provoking," a spokesman said according to Telegraph. "And we've heard you'd like more ways to celebrate, commiserate or laugh together. That's why we are testing Reactions, an extension of the Like button, to give you more ways to share your reaction to a Facebook post in a quick and easy way."
Said feature is tested in Ireland and Spain on Friday and when things go well, it will be rolled out for the rest of the world.
It was revealed by Zuckerberg in September that they are testing new buttons saying, "We're working on it and are very close to shipping a test of it. We didn't want to just build a dislike button because we don't want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people's posts. That doesn't seem like the kind of community we want to create."
The new reaction emojis will be available on both mobile and desktop versions and on all News Feed but Facebook doesn't have plans yet to add them to Messenger or other Facebook-owned products, Tech Crunch reported.
