Facebook's "Like" button is more than just a way to express approval about a particular post or comment. Indeed, the like button has taken on a life of its own as a tool that's used by ordinary members and brands alike for all sorts of reasons.
As iconic and popular as the like button is (it gets clicked more often than people perform Google searches), it's ironically not very versatile. That's why when Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last year that changes were in the works, people took notice.
We're now on the cusp of Reactions, a feature that will expand upon Facebook's like button with a handful of common responses. After careful consideration, those responses were whittled down to angry, sad, haha, wow and love - all of which will be represented by animated emojis.
One of Facebook's goals with Reactions was to avoid cluttering posts with multiple options to click on. The solution? Display the usual thumbs-up button under each post on mobile devices and only show the additional Reaction options if a user presses down on the button a bit longer.
"Yay" was originally slated to be the sixth response although it was eliminated during testing as it wasn't universally understood.
Facebook's chief product officer, Chris Cox, told Bloomberg that Reactions will begin rolling out to all users in the next few weeks.