facebook emoji reactionsEmoji may be the future of communication, and Facebook is embracing them with open arms. The social network is trying out emoji reactions in Ireland and Spain that augment the standard ‘Like’ button.

The new reactions include Love, Haha, Yay, Wow, Sad and Angry, in addition to Like, and show up as emoji under posts. The emoji animate as a user hovers their cursor or slides their finger across them, but it’s unclear how others are notified of the reaction.

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

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the development of new reactions last month, saying the social network wanted to allow users to express more emotions without having to comment. While some users may be ::sad emoji:: that Dislike isn’t an option, Zuckerberg has previously stated that Facebook likely wouldn’t add that particular reaction to avoid the up-or-down voting system found in other sites like Reddit.

Adding reactions to daily communications is a growing trend. Microsoft is rolling out a Like button for email on Outlook, and Slack users can already react to a message with any emoji they want to use. Social network Path has offered emoji reactions since 2012, but has a more limited selection closer Facebook’s solution.

Facebook hopes to rollout the reactions feature worldwide soon, but users in Ireland and Spain should see them starting today.

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