Facebook's new Reactions help you express yourself

Facebook is beginning to test a new way for users to express themselves beyond the standard "Like" or comment. Now users can express their feelings using a variety of Reactions, little emoji characters that they can place on posts.

Users have seven Reactions to choose from, including Like. The other are Love, Haha, Yay, Wow, Sad, and Angry, each with their own accompanying emoji character. Using them is simple enough. On the desktop website, users can hover their mouse cursor over the Like button to be presented with Reactions. On mobile, they will appear when you tap the Like button. It's not exactly a dislike button, but it's likely to prove a better tool for expression in the long run.

Facebook also hopes that businesses take this opportunity to see how users really engage with their products and social content. Companies will be able to see all reactions in their Page insights, and all reactions have the same impact on ad delivery as Likes currently do.

Remember that this is currently only a test, so don't expect Reactions to show up in your feed right away.

Source: Facebook, TechCrunch

Joseph Keller