Facebook Reactions…
There have been many occasions upon reviewing both our corporate and personal Facebook accounts that we have been left with mixed emotions when reading the statuses left by other users on our news feed, and now thanks to the platform’s new range of reactions we can share our true feelings! Yes, Facebook has officially jumped onto the emoji bandwagon, giving us the option to not just like, but love, laugh and even express our utter distaste, but what’s your reaction to these new reactions?
A more expressive way forward
In a world where social networks are indeed the only way to express our feelings confidently you can see why harnessing more ways to react at the touch of a button is being embraced by so many. Whilst many describe the selection of emojis as a brand new feature, it is simply an extension of the ‘like’ button that we have come to know and love over the years.
By long pressing on mobile devices or hovering over the like button from your desktop computer, the time served like is transformed to display a whole range of emotions. You can now ‘love’, ‘haha’, ‘wow’, ‘sad’ or just become ‘angry’ from your like button, five animations that offer a new way to interact with other Facebook users.
Why the big change?
Over the years as Facebook users we’ve discovered that not every post if likeable, and thanks to the introduction of these reactions, you don’t have to like everything you encounter, in fact a selection of emotions are now at your disposal. This change comes after more than a year of development, Mark Zuckerberg, product design director Julie Zhuo and the rest of the Facebook team’s reaction to feedback from genuine users. The reactions offer an extended way to interact from the news feed, whether accessing the platform on your mobile or another device.
The reactions are easy to apply, with users now able to leave their mark on other people’s statuses with a quick click. The five gestures were developed with Facebook’s international success in mind with the rise (and rise) of the emoji making the final designs the only logical choices.
Their success so far
It appears that the year taken to develop the reactions has been well spent, and despite the feature extension only just being launched, users everywhere have embraced their use, so what next? Will this range of reactions expand further? Not necessarily. The six reactions, including like, were specifically selected as these were the emotions users expressed most often according to research gathered by the Facebook team, a study that analysed the most frequently used stickers, emojis and one word comments.
In short Facebook’s emoji inspired responses give us a way to react faster and more easily but how will they fare when or even if the novelty wears off? Only time will tell.
