Facebook’s emoji buttons expected to roll out in ‘next few weeks’

While the effort was first tested in Spain and Ireland, and then trickled it out to Chile, the Philippines, Portugal and Colombia, Reactions is finally headed to the US and the rest of the world in the “next few weeks,” according to a Bloomberg report.

At the same time, it is limited in its appeal because people often post status updates – “my cat died” – where using the Like button may not be appropriate. Facebook declined to comment beyond saying that feedback to Reactions has been positive and that the company hopes to broadly release it “soon”.

Reactions will nearly certainly get users responding to more posts as they’ll have a range of responses to choose from that better illustrate how they really feel.

It’s a seemingly simple addition, but it’s an important one for both Facebook and users. The social network will tally the reactions – expressed as emoticons – on each post. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that on a daily basis, 100 million hours of video are consumed by users, and there are 500 million people who watch videos on a daily basis on the platform.

Will Facebook Reactions improve user experience?

But Zuckerberg said that introducing a range of options rather than just an opposite to the Like button added “a little bit of complexity” to a user’s reaction. But after the new feature rolls out it will help people show their emotions – such as the sad emoticon – on such posts.

The new features go beyond the traditional thumbs-up by also offering emotions for angry, sad, wow, haha, yay, and love.

He’s also explained how the company chose five more internationally-recognized emotions to sit alongside the famous button.

A Dislike button has been ruled out by the social network as it would “sow too much negativity”. Doing that wil bring up a menu of different reactions, and allow users to select any of them.