What are Reactions in social media?

Reactions are the emotion-based responses users can leave on your content beyond the traditional "like." First popularized by Facebook in 2016, reactions allow users to express specific emotions such as "love," "haha," "wow," "sad," or "angry" in response to posts. Many platforms now offer their own versions of reactions.

For example, Facebook expanded from the traditional “like” to include a full range of reactions like Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry, enabling users to respond more meaningfully to posts.

These emotion indicators provide more nuanced feedback than simple likes, giving content creators better insight into how their audience truly feels about their posts.

Reactions by Platform

‍Facebook:
Offers multiple reactions on posts and comments: 👍 Like, ❤️ Love, 😂 Haha, 😲 Wow, 😢 Sad, 😡 Angry

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‍LinkedIn:
Professional tone reactions like 👍 Like, 👏 Celebrate, ❤️ Support, 🤔 Insightful, and 💡 Curious

‍Instagram:
Offers quick emoji reactions to Stories, DMs and comments with heart, fire, laughing face, etc.

TikTok

Users can react to TikTok comments with a like (❤️) or dislike (👎). For inbox messages, however, they have many more reaction options to choose from.

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X (formerly Twitter):
On X, one of the first platforms to introduce reactions, has kept its system simplified using only a 'like' (❤️ - originally ★ then ♡)

Messenger & WhatsApp:
One of the most popular uses of reactions is on chat platforms like Meta Messenger and WhatsApp. These platforms allow users to react to individual messages with a wide variety of emojis.

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