We “Like” It!

It’s hard to know what to do when a friend posts that something bad has happened on Facebook. You want to show your support but hitting “like” hardly seems appropriate. Well, it seems that FB has solved the issue and you should soon be able to respond, not by clicking “dislike” as previously discussed, but rather by selecting the appropriate emoji to convey your thoughts.

Facebook is currently testing “Reactions,” a collection of emoji-like icons that users can choose instead of the traditional “Like” button in Ireland and Spain. The idea also builds on Facebook’s success with Stickers, small animated drawings that users can post as reactions to friends’ updates. “Typing on mobile is difficult,” Facebook product director Adam Mosseri told TechCrunch, “and this is way easier than finding a sticker or emoji to respond to in the feed.”

Reactions currently being tested include Like, Love, Haha, Yay, Wow, Sad and Angry.

For marketers, brands and users would reportedly be able to see a simple count of how many different kinds of responses each post generated, which would also eventually be reflected in the analytics dashboard for page managers.

We’ll let you know when this solution hit the U.S.!