Facebook is finally moving beyond the “Like.”
The Menlo Park, Calif. firm announced Feb. 24 that its long-awaited “Reactions” buttons are rolling out to its billion-plus users around the world. While “Like” is sticking around, new responses include “Love,” “Haha,” “Wow,” “Sad” and “Angry.”
“We understand that this is a big change, and want to be thoughtful about rolling this out,” wrote Facebook Product Manager Sammi Krug of the new buttons. “For more than a year we have been conducting global research including focus groups and surveys to determine what types of reactions people would want to use most. We also looked at how people are already commenting on posts and the top stickers and emoticons as signals for the types of reactions people are already using to determine which reactions to offer.”
To use Facebook’s new response options on mobile, users can hold down the Like button until more options appear. On desktop, users must hover their cursor over the Like button to make reactions appear.
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The new buttons should appeal to Facebook users who have complained that “Like” is an inappropriate response to certain posts on the social network, like a friend mourning the death of a loved one or a serious news item.
Here’s what they look like:
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