Facebook is currently testing reactions in their Messenger mobile app. Based on a tip received from Hoan Do aka @hoandesign on Twitter, Techcrunch revealed the emergence of a little button adjacent to the messages. Upon tapping on the button, a set of emojis will be displayed as reactions. In addition to wow, lol, angry, sad, and heart-eyes, Facebook has integrated thumbs-down Dislike and thumbs-up-like emojis. The dislike was added based on long pending feedback from users. The reaction count will be displayed below relevant messages. If a user taps on it, then a complete list of all people who reacted will be visible on the screen.
Reactions under trial run among select people
Facebook has reportedly confirmed the presence of the reactions feature. Moreover, the company disclosed that they are currently conducting a closed beta testing with selected users picked randomly. The product team is currently testing to provide a group of people with the best way to express their feelings. Based on user feedback, the reactions feature could roll out to the general public within the next few months. However, there is no information about which mobile platform the feature is being currently tested.
Love is the most clicked reaction emoji in the world
According to estimates, over 300 billion reactions were delivered worldwide after the introduction over one year back.
Among all the emojis, Love garnered a market share of over 50 percent since it is regularly used by people. Furthermore, people from Chile, Mexico, and Suriname countries are aggressively using the reactions feature.
Alternatively, Facebook is considering to provide importance to reactions when it comes to displaying of posts.
In future, you can expect posts with the most number of reactions to go on top of the main dashboard and have prominence in the news feed.
Introduced in 2016, the reactions enable people to express their emotions by way of various emoji options. The emojis are displayed when a user hovers over the Like link located below the post. Like in the past, Facebook will most likely roll out the reactions feature initially for iOS followed by Android after the completion of the testing process.
