Mark Zuckerberg has announced that a dislike button is being worked on as news emerged last, and Facebook will be testing it soon. He shared that people have consistently been asking about this capability for years: “We’ve finally heard you and we’re working on this and we will deliver something that meets the needs of the larger community.”
The change is just another way to express your feelings about what friends or family post, but a welcome one, given that not everything shared on the social network is appropriate for a “like”.
From tomorrow (October 9, 2015), some Facebook users in Ireland and Spain will start seeing “Reactions,” Facebook’s new emoji-based buttons that let users express additional emotions to their friends’ posts.
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This is in line with what Zuckerberg has said all along — a simple “Dislike” button is open to abuse and could create a poisonous atmosphere on the social network. The way it’s actually doing it, users can elect not only to “Like” something, but they can also love it, while also showing they found something amusing, sad, amazing, or anger-inducing. There is still some scope for people to use these emotions in the wrong way, but this is probably the most effective way of introducing new emotions to the mix.
If Engadget’s report is true, the new emotions will be displayed as a drop-down menu below the regular “like” button, and it will be available both on Pages and regular user profiles.
Facebook tests 'Reactions,' a Like button with more emotions http://t.co/4i1MofDzz5 pic.twitter.com/dWI6keSKzH
— Engadget (@engadget) October 8, 2015
Facebook has been in need of more sentiment options for a while, and tomorrow it moves one step closer towards happening. There is no official word yet on when it will be launching more widely, but it’s typical of Facebook to slowly introduce new features such as this and tweak it based on feedback it receives from a smaller, more localized group.
Sources: venturebeat / engadget / mashable
