You’ve probably heard by now that Facebook would be adding a “dislike” button to go with its “like” button. CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in September.
“I think people have asked about the dislike button for many years,” he said back then. “Today is a special day because today is the day I can say we’re working on it and shipping it.”
But, it turns out that it’s more than that. When users hold a click on the “like” button, they’ll also have an option to use a heart, a happy face, a sad face or a stunned (“wow!”) face. They did say that these new options won’t work like the +1 or -1 like with Reddit.
It does make sense. Sometimes you want to show sympathy or empathy and you feel wrong for hitting the “like” button when it’s the fifth anniversary of someone’s dad dying.
“What [users] really want is the ability to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment,” Zuckerberg said last month.
The new feature rolls out on Thursday in Spain and Ireland.