Facebook users across the world have an entirely new way to react to statuses.
On Wednesday morning, the social networking site unveiled its new Reactions feature, which gives users a few more ways to react to a friend's Facebook status, post or photo. When users place their mouse over the "Like" option, six emoticons also pop up - one for Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry - to help users more accurately express how they feel about a status.
"Every day, people come to Facebook to discover what's happening in their world and around the world, and to share all kinds of things, whether that's updates that are happy, sad, funny or thought-provoking," Facebook product manager Sammi Krug wrote in a statement. ""¦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."
These Reactions may be new to the common Facebook user, but the social network has been testing them for more than a year in select markets, Krug wrote.
In fact, the concept of these reactions has been in development for more than a year. As I wrote about last October, Facebook decided on this new feature after receiving plenty of support for a Dislike button. But Mark Zuckerberg's global social network decided to use Reactions instead after reviewing Facebook user data and finding that specific emojis - like hearts, laughing faces and teary sad faces - were some of the most popular expressions used on the site.
"Hearts were everywhere," Adam Mosseri, head of the Facebook news feed, told Bloomberg. "Sometimes it was heart eyes. Sometimes it was a heart beating out of a chest."
These new Reactions can take some getting used to. Instead of just clicking "Like," users will now have to consciously think about which expression best shows their emotion. And though it does give Facebook a fresh new look, "some users could find the new choices confusing or unhelpful," CNN reported.
To test your skills, here are 12 Facebook statuses we've created that you're likely to see on Facebook. Choose the corresponding Facebook emoticons that you think are the best match.
