Turns Out, Facebook's "Dislike" Button Is Really Just New Emojis

Hear that, mom and dad? There's a new way to express your love for my posts, photos, check-ins, and statuses on Facebook! Despite what we've heard about the mysterious and fabled dislike button, it looks like Facebook is giving us an array of handsome-ass emojis to further the cause of wide-scale Internet empathy.

The six new "reaction" emojis will still include the beloved "like" that writers everywhere feel compelled to put in quotations when talking about it, but will also feature: Love, Haha, Yay, Wow, Sad, Angry. Facebook told TechCrunch the pop-up feature will test only in Spain and Ireland before anything else is decided.

So, why the sudden emoji boom? FB's Director of product, Adam Mosseri, reminds us that “typing on mobile is difficult and this is way easier than finding a sticker or emoji to respond to in the feed.” True, lord knows every comment that appears on my wall is scrutinized with deadly accuracy until the right sticker or GIF makes itself apparent... but choosing from five pre-loaded emojis will undoubtedly simplify things.

Today we’re launching a pilot test of Reactions — a more expressive Like button. As you can see, it’s not a “dislike”...

Posted by Chris Cox on Thursday, October 8, 2015
But let's just go ahead and say what everyone's thinking: now we finally have a way to let friends know that we've seen your sad status without seeming like we're insensitive prick. I didn't "like" the death of your dog, you know this! YOU KNOW THIS!

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Jeremy Glass is a writer for Thrillist and was actually totally into your dead dog.