FACEBOOK moved far ahead from its original ‘like’ – where someone used to click the thumbs-up icon to show they liked another person’s post.
A ‘like’ is quite unclear in its meaning, and that is why Facebook went on to create reaction emojis.
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What are the Facebook reaction emojis?
Facebook created reaction emojis to give people more ways how they can express their feelings to a post rather than the ineffective ‘Like”.
Now you can choose from Like, Love, Care, HaHa, Wow, Sad and Angry.
Facebook warns that the reactions should not be used in a creative way.
So don’t react to someone’s post in an emoji that would give a bad meaning to the context because you might offend someone or seem disrespectful.
What do the Facebook reaction emojis mean?
The seven Facebook reaction emojis all have different meanings.
We will tell you what they all mean and when to use them.
The Like button
The original thumbs-up which was the only reaction one could do when Facebook first started.
It shows less emotion than other reactions, however, it can mean that you appreciated or enjoyed someone’s posts.
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The Love button
This reaction is a beating heart which shows support, care and love for someone.
You can express your feelings with this emoji when you adore or simply love what someone posts.
The Care emoji
This reaction is a facial expression holding a heart which was created when Covid-19 first hit globally.
Its aim was to show that people do care for one another even though they were far apart because of lockdown.
Now that Covid-19 passed, it’s used to show that people are there for you when you post about bad news, or to show sympathy towards you.
The Haha emoji
This emoji depicts a laughing face.
It is normally used to react to funny posts.
However, it can have another horrible meaning which is to call someone a clown or indicate that they’re making a fool out of themselves.
In these cases, try to refrain from joining the crowd and maybe try to contact that person and let them know that they shouldn’t post such things online.
Or if there’s nothing wrong with the post, maybe try to message them and ask them how they feel about the reactions they received.
Everyone receives criticism differently and in some cases, it can escalate to bullying.
The Wow face
The wow emoji is literally a little character saying the word ‘Wow’.
It means that you are blown away by something – good or bad – depending on the context of the post.
The Sad face
This reaction depicts a crying emoji which clearly shows it’s sad.
It shows that you’re upset by something that you saw or to show that you really feel for someone that posted something which seems really sad.
The Angry face
The angry face is a hot-headed emoji which clearly shows that someone is furious about something.
People react using this emoji when they are annoyed about some news or want to show that they are really angry about something that has happened.
Can I change the Facebook reaction emojis?
You cannot change what reaction emojis to react with.
There are those seven, and you need to choose one of them.
However, if you for example chose Sad by mistake and instead wanted to choose Care, you can change that.
Simply tap and hold your current reaction which you’ll find next to the Comment and Share buttons.
The other emojis will show up and you can choose which one you’d like to react with from there.
