Facebook tests buttons to express anger, sadness

Facebook users in Spain and Ireland will begin to see six reaction emojis sitting alongside the humble “like” button.

Alongside its traditional thumbs-up like, the users will be able to “express” love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness and anger.

Cox says the company studied Facebook comments to see what reactions were most universally expressed through Facebook and based the new buttons on that.

In a post, Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer, said that these new buttons will address the spirit of the request for a “dislike” button, but in a broader way.

The new feature, which can be accessed by long-pressing the “Like” button, is being rolled out under the name Reactions.

Facebook told Techcrunch.com that “reactions” will start out as a test in just their Spain and Ireland market, before they decide whether to tweak it and roll it out further. The industry, at first, assumed that Facebook will introduce a “Dislike” button, which users have been requesting for a long time.

Zuckerberg commented: “Not every moment is a good moment, and sometimes you just want a way to express empathy”.

Reactions will be available across platforms and on all News Feed posts.

There are seven in total: Like, Love, Haha, Yay, Wow, Sad and Angry.

These emojis come in response to calls for a “dislike” button, which company founder Mark Zuckerberg hinted might be in the works back in September.

The new buttons do not include a thumbs-down option, but a sad emoji would be a more sympathetic option for a friend’s post about their recent breakup. Zuckerberg wanted to avoid a negative approach and said “it is surprisingly complicated to make an interaction that will be simple” during a session held at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.