Where Is The “Dislike” Button, Facebook?

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Facebook is no longer limiting users to a “like” response on friends’ posts. The social network has added five new reactions to the list of options: “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad,” and “angry.” It has been testing them for some time in some markets but has just pushed them out to users throughout the world. There is one notable option, however. There’s no “dislike” button.

Facebook users must look for the new reactions

Facebook has been rumored to be considering adding a “dislike” button for quite some time, but it looks like management decided that it’s too harsh of a reaction. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in September that they were getting ready to start testing it at that time, although now it’s unclear just how far they got in the development of a “dislike” button.

On the other hand, “sad” or “angry” could be seen as more descriptive versions of “dislike.” At any rate, clearly the social network has answered the public call for more ways for users to express themselves, which it is calling “Reactions.” When asked about the rumors of adding a “dislike” button, a Facebook spokesperson declined to comment.

In a blog post, Facebook Product Manager Sammi Krug officially announced the addition of the new expressions.

“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,” she said. “That’s why today we are launching Reactions, an extension of the Like button, to give you more ways to share your reaction to a post in a quick and easy way.”

Why Facebook added more expressions

She also explained the thought process they went through when deciding which emotions to add. She said they have spent more than a year conducting focus groups and running surveys to see which one people would most like to see and use. Facebook also examined comments and the most-used stickers and emoticons to determine which reactions people use when commenting on posts.

Users who aren’t informed about the change may not even realize it has been made because you kind of have to know to look for them in order to see them. In order to see the new options, you must hover over the “like” button to see them and choose one, and they look just like emojis. On mobile devices, you must hold down the like button to see the new expressions and then tap on the one you want. What has been rolled out worldwide today seems an exact copy of what Facebook was testing in limited markets in October.

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