Facebook to test Like-replacement Reaction emoji feature

Facebook has always been that one space where people can tune in and stroke each other’s egos. Whether that be photos from your trip to Thailand, drooling over each other’s Sunday brunches or congratulating baby photos and engagements, we’ve become geared to share all those special moments with our friends. This might just start to change.

On the back of the news that the world’s largest social networking site is introducing a “Dislike” button, it’s now been revealed that its CEO Mark Zuckerberg will rather be testing out Reaction buttons — a replacement of the existing Like button.

The new feature will be made up of a variety of six emoji buttons, including the all-so-popular white and blue thumbs-up. The new ones will be love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness and anger. Because words are so noughties.

Read more A ‘dislike’ button could spell disaster for brands on Facebook

“We’re excited to start this test, but understand that this is a big change, and one that we want to make sure to get right,” writes Facebook’s product manager Chris Tosswill, who adds that testing will soon start in Ireland and Spain.

See this hands-on video by iClarified to see the Reaction feature in action on mobile:

Tosswill goes on to say that Facebook views this as an opportunity for businesses and publishers to better understand how people are responding to their content on Facebook.

Our goal is to show you the stories that matter most to you in News Feed. Initially, just as we do when someone likes a post, if someone uses a Reaction, we will infer they want to see more of that type of post. We will spend time learning from this initial rollout and iterate based on findings in the future.

To quote Memeburn contributor Dee Stephens: “We are entering an era of authenticity and likes just don’t cut it anymore.”

While brands might gain better insight about their audiences, this new feature will require them to certainly up their game. With more choice comes opinion, and with more opinion comes controversy.