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Forget Dislike Button: Facebook Launches New Reactions Feature

by Fahad Saleem

Last month, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted that some extension to the famous “Like” button is coming soon and the company is working on it. It was but natural for the world to go crazy and major media outlets, including us, reported the possible launch of a much-awaited and talked about “Dislike” button. But today, Facebook announced its “Reactions” feature, which will be available for Facebook users in the coming months. Firstly, Reactions feature is not a “Dislike” button, nor does it have any Dislike reaction in it. Reactions is a combination of buttons which will give the Facebook users some new options to register their reaction to any Facebook post they see.
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Reactions include “Love”, “Laughter”, “yay”, “wow”, “Sad”, Angry”, apart from the Like button.

Here’s a quick video to check out how Facebook Reactions work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fWNb6T46Mk

People who are aware of the famous website Buzzfeed will know that reactions feature is nothing new. People have been using these reactions for a long time, as public response to Facebook’s launch of reactions feature is not much welcoming. After all, what difference would it make? I guess people were more interested in a Dislike button, but the social media giant has no such plans.

Adam Mosseri, Facebook director of Product says that this feature will be launched firstly in Ireland and Spain for testing and updating before a general role out.
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According to Mosseri, people around the world wanted some more features to react on Facebook posts, as a simple Like button is unable to convey the reaction in many cases. With Facebook Reactions, it would be easier for the users to get their point through quickly.

The rise of the mobiles is another impetus behind Facebook Reactions. A majority of Facebook users access their account from mobile devices. They don’t have time to type or react to posts by typing. So quick Reactions will make things easier, interesting and exciting for Facebook users.
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As for a dislike button, I guess the “Angry” reaction would suffice to dislike any post.

Adam Mosseri says that Facebook Reactions feature will also help Facebook page owners. They would be able to see a make a more granular analysis of the people’s reactions to the posts based on the incoming reactions.

Images: TechCrunch

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