Facebook Is Changing: Here's What You Need To Know: UPDATED
24 February 2016, 13:46 | Updated: 8 May 2017, 17:09
*SINGS* WE'RE GOING THROUGH CHANGESSSS.
The way that you engage with Facebook has changed, y'all.
The social media giant is something we've become accustomed to, and has become part of our daily lives with most of us checking it basically all the time (every hour, minute, second).
For as long as we can remember, Facebook has always had a "like" button. It's become almost instinct to hit the button when we see a selfie, a meme, a video or even a picture of your aunt's friend from across the street's dog's parrot.
But, FB are a bit fed up with the like button, and, after a a lot of deliberation, they've decided to switch things up. For all you haterz out there, there's not going to be a "dislike" button, but they are going to introduce something called "reactions".
Facebook/Engadget
Originally revealed in a profile on Bloomberg with Facebook's chief product officer Chris Cox, you'll now be able to express a variety of emotions when engaging with posts.
Rather than just "liking" a post, you'll now be able to express whether you love it, laughed at it, found it wow-able, sad or it just made you plain angry (something we feel we might be using a lot, tbh). The wow button, according to Engadget, unfortunately didn't make the final cut.
To explain it all way better than us, here's Mr. Facebook himself, Mark Zuckerberg in a, you guessed it, Facebook video!
Today we're launching a test of Reactions -- a more expressive Like button. The Like button has been a part of Facebook for a long time. Billions of Likes are made every day, and Liking things is a simple way to express yourself.For many years though, people have asked us to add a "dislike" button. Not every moment is a good moment, and sometimes you just want a way to express empathy. These are important moments where you need the power to share more than ever, and a Like might not be the best way to express yourself.At a recent Townhall Q&A, I shared with our community that we've spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to give you better options for expressing yourself, while keeping the experience simple and respectful. Today we're starting to test this.Reactions gives you new ways to express love, awe, humor and sadness. It's not a dislike button, but it does give you the power to easily express sorrow and empathy -- in addition to delight and warmth. You’ll be able to express these reactions by long pressing or hovering over the Like button. We’re starting to test Reactions in Ireland and Spain and will learn from this before we bring the experience to everyone. We hope you like this – or can better express how you’re feeling!
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, 8 October 2015
Updated 24 February
This feature is now LIVE on Facebook! To use them, you just need to hold down the like button on the app or hover over the button on desktop.
What do you make of this then? Will you be 'wow-ing' at someone's status?
