How to Use Facebook’s New Reactions

By now you’ve probably heard that Facebook has added more reactions beyond the ‘like’, with most users around the world seem to have access to the new functionality. There are six reactions in all – apart from the now familiar thumbs up ‘like’, you can ‘love’ a status or photo, put up a laughing face ‘haha’ reaction, or an open mouthed ‘wow’, or a ‘sad’ or ‘angry’ reaction.

Using these is pretty simple too – here’s how it works:

On your phone

1. Find a status or photo or other post to react to.
2. Tap and keep the like button pressed for a couple of seconds.
3. You’ll see a pop-up with all six options – just tap whichever one you’d like to add.
   You’ve now added to reaction. You’ll see the thumbs up icon get replaced by the reaction you picked, so you can quickly see whether a post has been liked, loved, or wowed.
4. To change it to another reaction instead, just repeat steps 2 and 3. To remove the reaction altogether, just tap the reaction’s icon on the post.

On your computer

1. Find a status or photo or other post to react to.
2. Hover the mouse over the like button for a couple of seconds.
3. You’ll see a pop-up with all six options – just tap whichever one you’d like to add.
   You’ve now added to reaction. You’ll see the thumbs up icon get replaced by the reaction you picked, so you can quickly see whether a post has been liked, loved, or wowed.
4. To change it to another reaction instead, just repeat steps 2 and 3. To remove the reaction altogether, just click the reaction’s icon on the post.

That’s all there is to it, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, this is still being rolled out globally – so if you don’t see it on your computer or phone right away, don’t worry, you’ll probably have the option soon.

Second, reactions are a little more complex than a simple like which used to be an easy way to just acknowledge a post. Now, clicking ‘like’ on some bad news will look really rude since you could have used the sad reaction instead. So before reacting to any post, do think about what would be most appropriate.

And third, Facebook also said it will use reactions to track user behaviour and for ad delivery – so get ready for an even more ‘personalised’ experience on Facebook.

That’s about it, what do you think? ‘Like’, ‘Love’, or ‘Angry’? Tell us via the comments.