Facebook Rolls Out Major Updates

Don’t look now, but one might see that Facebook just launched the expanded “Like” button it promised last quarter. Facebook users on Desktop might notice that when they hover over the Like button, it now shows a range of six other emoticons expressing “Love,” “Haha,” “Yay,” “Wow,” “Sad” and “Angry.”

When rumors of Facebook expanding the “Like” button first reached the news, users and tech pundits alike thought that Facebook was going to go for a “Dislike” button. Facebook quickly dispelled the speculations, saying that the rumored “Dislike” button was actually going to be more of a host of new emoticons. And true enough, when the emoticon suite rolled out this week, it was a full range of seven crucial emotions.

These seven emoticons, including the already-iconic Facebook Like button may well be able to cover everything, though the open-mouthed “Wow” doesn’t exactly express the negative kind of shock.

More on the first stirrings of the then-rumored “Dislike Button,” which is now in the emoticon suite: https://www.droidreport.com/facebooks-three-major-developments-will-keep-both-developer-end-user-happy-11161

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In other news, Facebook has also rolled out another feature, but this time, they rolled it out only to a specific demographic: India. India boasts of 130 million Facebook subscribers, and next to the USA, they have the most number of Facebook users in the world. Thus, it makes sense to roll out new features in India right after the USA.

This feature, which initially rolled out in the U.S. and Western Europe, is Instant Articles. For publishers that are on the platform, users can interact with their articles, well, instantly. This video from Facebook is a demonstration of how it should work on iOS: https://www.facebook.com/instantArticles/videos/932984780109272/

The platform was initially rolled out in May 2015, and it was actually met with some criticism. One user on the Facebook Page for Instant Articles points out that no instructions were detailed as to whether the feature is an app or something that’s embedded into the Facebook app itself. However, the Instant Articles page explained on its Pinned Post that for Instant Articles to be available, their Facebook app has to be updated to the latest version.

-The Oct. 21, 2015 comment on the lack of explanation as to how to use the Instant Articles feature: https://www.facebook.com/instantArticles/videos/932984780109272/?comment_id=933389996735417&reply_comment_id=933417513399332&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R7%22%7D

-The Instant Articles Page’s explanation on how to use it: https://www.facebook.com/instantArticles/posts/851861798221571

The Wall Street Journal published the news that Facebook is still trying to figure out how to properly showcase ads on Instant Articles, with the implication that Facebook hasn’t gotten it all figured out yet for the feature and publishing platform: https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-mulls-ad-changes-for-instant-articles-after-publisher-pushback-1447281399

In any case, end-users in India will be able to enjoy the feature, as well as the content from the publishers registered on the platform. Hopefully, Facebook will be able to iron out the kinks on Instant Articles as the platform matures.

Here is Instant Articles’ official website: https://instantarticles.fb.com/