Facebook reaction symbols allow users to quickly respond to posts with an emoji that conveys their feeling or reaction. The reaction options available on Facebook include Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry. These emoji reactions provide a simple way for users to interact with posts without having to write a comment.
History of Facebook Reactions
The Like button has been a central part of the Facebook experience since it was introduced in 2009. For years, it was the only way for users to interact with posts other than commenting. However, as Facebook evolved, users began requesting more options for reacting to posts.
In February 2016, Facebook expanded the Like feature by introducing Reactions. Initially, the available reactions included Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry. The company conducted research and determined these six emojis covered the full range of human emotions most commonly expressed on Facebook posts.
Purpose of Expanding Beyond Likes
According to Facebook, there were a few motivations behind adding new reaction options:
- Users wanted more ways to easily and quickly express themselves
- The Like button did not capture the full range of user reactions and emotions
- Having more reactions would enable more meaningful feedback for posts
Overall, Facebook wanted to provide a better user experience by making it simpler for people to convey reactions like love, laughter, surprise, sadness and anger.
The Six Original Reaction Emojis
When Reactions first launched, there were only six options available. These included:
Like
The classic thumbs up icon that users are accustomed to clicking. It conveys general approval or agreement.
Love
A heart eyes emoji that expresses love, affection or strong positive feelings about a post.
Haha
A laughing/smiley face that conveys humor, amusement or laughter in response to a post.
Wow
A surprised face with wide eyes and mouth open. It expresses surprise, amazement or awe.
Sad
A frowning face with a single tear that signals sadness, sympathy or pain in relation to a post.
Angry
A mad face conveying outrage, disgust or frustration with the post.
This initial set of reactions covered the most common emotional responses people have to Facebook content. Users could now do more than just “like” a post if they wanted to convey stronger or more nuanced feelings.
Later Additions to Reactions
After the original six reactions, Facebook continued expanding the available emojis to increase self-expression. Here are some notable updates:
Pride Reaction
In June 2017, Facebook introduced a rainbow Pride flag reaction. This provided an easy way for users to show support for the LGBTQ community during Pride Month.
Thankful Reaction
A thankful/grateful emoji was added in 2017 for users to react with during the Thanksgiving holiday season.
Care Reaction
In April 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, Facebook launched a smiling face hugging a pink heart. This allowed users to express caring, comfort and emotional support.
More Reactions in Other Languages
Facebook has added specialized reactions tailored to certain languages and regions. For example, in support of India’s Holi festival, Facebook added a flower shower emoji for users with Indian language settings. Reactions like “Yay!” and “Confused” have also been added in other languages.
Overall, Facebook continues to expand its reaction emojis to enable people around the world to react in culturally relevant and meaningful ways.
How to Use Reactions
Using reactions on Facebook posts is very simple:
- Click on the post you want to react to. This expands it and shows the reaction buttons.
- Click the reaction emoji that best represents your feeling about the post.
- The emoji you select will appear colored next to the Like button, indicating you reacted.
- To remove your reaction, simply click on it again. This deselects it.
You can only pick one reaction emoji per post. However, you can change your reaction at any time by selecting a different emoji.
Where Reactions Appear
Reaction emojis appear in a few places on Facebook:
- On posts: When you react to a post, the emoji is shown next to the Like button.
- In notifications: If someone reacts to your post, you’ll get a notification showing which emoji they used.
- On profiles: The reactions you’ve made recently appear on your profile under the Activity Log.
Seeing reactions on posts and notifications lets you gauge how others are responding to content across Facebook.
Most Used Reactions Vary by Post Type
Facebook analyzed over 1 trillion reactions between 2020 and 2021. They found the most popular reactions differed based on the type of post:
| Post Type | Most Used Reactions |
|---|---|
| Friends sharing life updates |
|
| Posts about current events and news |
|
| Entertaining posts like jokes, memes, videos |
|
| Inspirational content |
|
As this summary shows, happier reactions like Like, Love and Haha dominate on positive personal updates, funny posts and inspirational content. More negative emotions like Sad and Angry unsurprisingly appear most often on news-related posts.
Reactions API for Developers
Facebook provides a Reactions API to help developers leverage reactions data in their apps. Here are some of the capabilities it provides:
- Ability to retrieve metrics for how many of each reaction a post has received.
- Find out if the logged-in user has reacted to a post.
- Programmatically react to a post with any valid emoji.
- Get notifications when reactions are added or removed from a post.
Developers can use the API to build social listening tools, analyze reaction trends, auto-react to certain post types, and more. It opens up many possibilities for apps to integrate reactions.
Controversy Around Reactions
Facebook adding reactions beyond the Like button was not without controversy. Some of the concerns raised included:
Change Aversion
Longtime Facebook users did not welcome the change and felt reactions were unnecessary. The familiarity of Liking was disrupted.
Reduced Engagement
Some studies found that comments decreased on posts that received lots of reactions. Reactions could enable lazy engagement.
Spread of Negative Emotions
There were concerns that having Angry and Sad reactions would promote the spread of negativity online.
However, Facebook’s internal data showed that the positive impacts of reactions outweighed potential negatives. And over time, users have grown accustomed to reacting with more than just Likes.
Conclusion
Facebook reactions provide a simple yet meaningful way to respond to posts. The six original reactions address the most common emotions people want to express online. As Facebook has expanded the available emojis, users around the world have embraced reacting as a way to feel more connected.
Although adding reactions was controversial at first, it has improved the Facebook user experience. And Facebook has committed to researching how reactions data can help foster healthy discourse online. For now, the Like button remains as iconic as ever, even if people have many more ways to interact with content.