Six are the human's most common emotions, according to Facebook at least. Today after months of testing, Facebook is rolling out its redesigned Like button to all users.
To add a reaction, hold down the Like button on mobile or hover over the Like button on desktop to see the reaction image options, then tap either Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry.
These are the 6 options/emtions explained
Like – Facebook designed Reactions so Liking is still as easy ever. You’ll see the Like button on every post, but now if you tap and hold on it (or hover on desktop), the Like will expand to reveal the other emotions: Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry. Drag your finger across and you can select one.
Now instead of a Like count, posts will display the total Reaction count, and show the icons of the most popular Reactions. This way, Facebook doesn’t have to clutter the feed with individual counts of each emotion. If you do want to know the breakdown, you can tap the Reaction count and see who felt what.
This design is smart because if you don’t want to use Reactions, you don’t have to, and there aren’t six buttons on every post.
Love – Ever felt like wanting to like something more than once or express empathy? Spread the love!
Wow – By adding Reactions, Facebook will now have a much more accurate perception of what we feel and what kind of posts resonate with each of us. It could eventually use that knowledge to better filter the News Feed to show more things that Wow us.
Eventually, if you enjoy getting your blood pumping, it could show you more posts that stir up Angry reactions. Or if you’re addicted to cute cats, it could surface more Loveable pet photos.
Haha – We comment “Lol” or "Haha" on so many posts that Facebook thought there could be a simpler way. To design Reactions, it looked at the most common one-word comments and stickers used on News Feed posts, grouped them together, and found that these six emoji capture almost every way people feel across cultures.
By standardizing emotions, Facebook could make it easier for people to connect across language barriers. I might know enough Spanish to read a friend’s post, but not how to comment with any kind of complexity. Now I can leave a Reaction, and be confident they understand what I mean.
Sad – Liking a sad story was always led people to think that you were heartless. That's not the case anymore.
Angry – There’s still no “Dislike” button, and that’s sure to piss some people off.