It’s not often that social media updates reach Irish shores first but, for Facebook users at least, things are about to change, as the company rolls out new Reactions as a test.
No longer to be the home of just ‘like’, Facebook is soon to allow users to choose from any of seven reactions to posts, comments and updates.
You can react positively, laughingly, lovingly, sadly or angrily, be wowed or yay-ed. Ok, the last one isn’t really a word but, then again, these are hardly real reactions.
Spain and Ireland are the test spots for the new suite of emoji, which lets Facebook try them out in both English and Spanish-speaking markets.
Last month it seemed like the social network giant was working on a ‘dislike’ button but, given how absolute that would be, and how much more versatile the use of these six new reactions is, it makes sense that Facebook went down this route.
“People have asked about the dislike button for many years,” Zuckerberg said last month. “We’ve finally heard you and we’re working on this and we will deliver something that meets the needs of the larger community.”
Reacting through emoji is the way social media is going. Well, some social media. WhatsApp and Viber lead the way in this regard, but other services have seen gifs dominate interaction.
Irish and Spanish users will see the roll-out from tomorrow on both desktop and mobile sites, with Gareth Lambe, head of Facebook in Ireland, saying: “It’s exciting that Ireland’s Facebook community will be one of the first to participate in testing these new ways to express reactions.
“With over two million Irish people actively logging onto Facebook every day, they’ll now have more ways to show how they feel – whether that’s happy, sad, funny or thought-provoking.”
A few days ago, Facebook announced its plans to let users make video profile pictures, and set temporary profile pictures, as the company continues to adapt and evolve.
Main image via Shutterstock
