A Dislike button has been among the most highly requested features of all time for Facebook, and the company is finally considering it - sort of.
Facebook has not ignored user requests for a Dislike button, but it previously argued that it would add too much negativity to the social network and it would rather not offer this reaction.
Consequently, when Facebook added reaction buttons last year, the Dislike button was notably absent. We got Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry, but no Dislike.
Facebook Messenger Reactions
With the available Facebook reactions now widely popular worldwide, the company is apparently thinking about taking things to the next level and adding more options, including a Dislike button, but with a twist.
Instead of adding more reactions to the main Facebook website and app, the company is reportedly testing reactions for Facebook Messenger. The feature would allow users to attach emojis to messages the same way they'd add a reaction to a News Feed post, a new report reveals.
Facebook has been making great efforts to push its Messenger as a stand-alone service rather than just a part of the main Facebook experience, and this new feature could further assert Messenger's independence.
How About That Facebook Dislike Button?
At the same time, however, could this be just a stepping stone to add more reactions, including the Dislike button, to the main Facebook website and app? It's too early to tell for now, especially since the reactions are only in testing for now, but it will be interesting to see how things will unfold.
As it seems now, two variants seem likely. Should these tests prove successful, Facebook will either roll out the new reactions to all Messenger users and separate the Facebook and Messenger experiences even further, or use the Messenger reactions testing as a launch pad to add more reactions to Facebook itself.
Truth be told, the first theory seems more plausible. Messages are more personal and private, so a Dislike button between friends talking to each other on Messenger would be more harmless. Facebook tells TechCrunch that it sees the Dislike button as more of a "No" answer than a disapproving reaction.
"It says people often use Messenger for planning and coordination, and it's experimenting to see if reactions are helpful for quick logistics and voting," reports TechCrunch's Josh Constine. "Thats why it's offering a Yes/No option, even though people will naturally see it as a Dislike button too."
With this in mind, the possibility of reserving the Dislike button only for Messenger seems even stronger. If Facebook really sees it as a negative response to a proposition, it might never add this reaction to the main site. Unlike Messenger, Facebook is a public venue with numerous pages, public profiles, companies and such, not just a place for friends to connect. A Dislike button would not serve as a "No" on Facebook, it would just allow users to express their disapproval toward a post and Facebook still wants to avoid negativity.
That said, while it's not completely out of the question to see Facebook implement a Dislike button sometime in the future, it does seem unlikely. For now, it remains to be seen if it will even make it to Messenger for all users, as it's just in limited testing at this point.
