You'll finally be able to use Reactions, Facebook's expansion on the traditional "like" button, in the next few weeks, the company tells Bloomberg.
Facebook first announced the new emoji emotions last fall as a new way for the social network to let you quickly respond to statuses or photos with more nuance than a "like."
Originally, Facebook had six reactions — angry, sad, wow, haha, yay, and love — but the company culled the selection down to five after testing them out in different markets like Chile, Ireland, and the Philippines.
Facebook tells Bloomberg that it decided to kill off "yay" because the emotion "not universally understood."
To use them, you'll just press down on the "like" button beneath a post to display all of the new animations.
Here's a video of how it will work, made before the decision to get rid of "yay":
Today we’re launching a pilot test of Reactions — a more expressive Like button. As you can see, it’s not a “dislike” button, though we hope it addresses the spirit of this request more broadly. We studied which comments and reactions are most commonly and universally expressed across Facebook, then worked to design an experience around them that was elegant and fun. Starting today Ireland and Spain can start loving, wow-ing, or expressing sympathy to posts on Facebook by hovering or long-pressing the Like button wherever they see it. We’ll use the feedback from this to improve the feature and hope to roll it out to everyone soon.
Posted by Chris Cox on Thursday, 8 October 2015
Read more about Reactions and Facebook VP Chris Cox in Bloomberg's profile.
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