Facebook is to introduce new emoticon interactions for users when interacting with users’ posts. Reactions will feature five new emoticons – love, wow, sad, angry and haha. The option to click like on a post will still be available, according to a report from the BBC. A sixth option, known as “yay”, was also said to be offered but had been withdrawn due to confusion on interpretations.
https://t.co/P9e2cdp4nP New blogpost – who likes Facebook’s new Reactions?
— Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) January 28, 2016
Speaking during a conference call with financial analysts, the social network’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said this would add a little complexity to something simple.
“When you only have a like button, if you share a sad piece of content or something that makes you angry, people may not have the tool to react to it,” Zuckerberg said as quoted by the BBC.
Zuckerberg said Reactions would be made available to users internationally soon. According to a report from Bloomberg, Reactions had been tested in places including Ireland, Spain and Chile.
Inside Facebook’s radical decision to mess with their secret sauce… the “like” button https://t.co/arWg74114r pic.twitter.com/jpwPE5HLah
— Bloomberg Business (@business) January 27, 2016
Zuckerberg’s confirmation of Reactions came as Facebook reported an increase in users. 1.59 billion people use Facebook monthly, an increase of 14 per cent compared to 2014, while 1.04 billion use the social network daily, an increase of 17 per cent compared to 2014.
We just announced our quarterly results and shared an update on our community’s progress to connect the world. Our…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Of the users, 934 million of them were accessing Facebook on mobile platforms daily, and 1.44 billion were accessing the network on mobile platforms during the course of a month.
