Facebook Now Has Other Emoji 'Reactions' Besides 'Like'

By R S Ali | Feb 25, 2016 07:53 AM EST

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Facebook has announced the addition of the emotions of love, haha, wow, sad or angry in addition to the blue thumbs-up 'like', according to USA Today.

Facebook users, particularly those accessing their accounts on their mobiles, have been lobbying for a while now.

The 'Like' button, according to users, is just not enough to express even a smaller sample of the range of emotions needed to convey expression on a post or image.

The new symbols were first tested by the giant social network in October, letting only some areas use the emotions of convey love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness, and anger as a test.

The Reactions which consist of the five emoting emojis will roll out to Facebook's almost 1.6 billion users around the world starting Wednesday.

Facebook Product Manager Sammi Krug wrote in a blog post that they had been tuned in to how people felt about the issue of only being able to express 'Like' on one click. . "We've been listening to people and know that there should be more ways to easily and quickly express how something you see in News Feed makes you feel," he said.

The way to use them is also in tune with requests from users - hold down the 'Like' button on your Facebook page on your mobile - or hover on it. Then choose the emoji you want to post.

The symbols were first tested in the fall in Spain and Ireland. They were also introduced in Chile, Portugal, the Philippines and most recently Japan.

The emojis, once posted, will come on friends' updates and Pages/accounts that you follow.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been considering, upon popular request, incorporating a 'dislike' button on Facebook feeds.

However, Facebook also clarified that the symbols' intention was not to trash or troll friends on the Internet, but instead to help people express positive emotions in a much quicker and easily accessible way than typing a comment.

Zuckerberg complemented this when he wrote in a Facebook post that not all emotions to be shared are happy. "Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating," he wrote. "Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years, but not because people want to tell friends they don't like their posts. People want to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions."

According to Zuckerberg 'Love' has been the most popular emoji as of yet.

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