In September, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that work was underway on a way that people could show empathy. He emphasized that it wouldn’t be a “dislike” icon that many have requested because that sends the wrong message. Instead, it would be a way to show emotions. Testing has begun in Spain and Ireland. Facebook may decide to tweak or leave it the same. Below are the Facebook emoticons being tested.
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Like
stays the same as a thumbs up. You can still like posts, but the new emoticons will give you a way to show other emotions.
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Love
Love is a heart. When you feel emotion beyond like, maybe you want to show your love. The heart emoticon is the way to do that.
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HaHa
HaHa is great for funny posts. It can show that you get jokes, let you share a laugh and more. Laughter is great for the mood and soul, so we really like this emoticon.
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Yay
Yay is ideal to express joy, excitement, pleasure and approval. How many times have you posted a Yay you or something similar? If this emoticon stays, you can say it with a click.
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Wow
Wow is great for showing that you’re delighted, amazed or overwhelmed. We see Wow a lot in Facebook post comments. An emoticon can say it for you, which people especially like on mobile devices.
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Sad
Sad is an emotion that many people have wanted. When one of your friends post something sad, it never felt quite right to like the post. A sad emoticon conveys empathy with the situation.
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Angry
Angry is another emotion that many people want to express about a situation that a friend is experiencing. An emoticon makes it easy to do this.
Do these expressions and words have the same meaning worldwide? Facebook’s research shows that they do, but they will tweak these test emoticons A video by Facebook’s Chief Product Officer Chris Cox shows how the emoticons work.