Since the dawn of Facebook (or, actually, since 2009), the social media platform has used a thumbs up logo to signify the “like” sentiment. When users want to show support, agree with an opinion or display satisfaction with an image, they click on the iconic button. But on websites and articles, Facebook has utilized a stylized letter F logo for users to “like” a company or piece on a third-party site.
After running an in-house experiment, Facebook has decided to change the look of its social plugin buttons, replacing the letter F logo with the blue thumbs up icon.
“The Like and Share buttons both use the Facebook ‘f’ logo today,” wrote Facebook in a company blog post. “Our hypothesis was that more people would understand the thumbs up icon on the Like button, so we conducted qualitative and quantitative tests to measure them side-by-side. The results revealed an increase in engagement, so we are switching the Like button from the Facebook “f” logo to the thumbs up icon.”
In addition to the redesign, Facebook will debut separate icons for various actions like following, recommending and saving articles for later. Its Instant Articles feature will also receive buttons for sharing, liking and commenting on articles.
Earlier this year, Facebook expanded its reaction options. Instead of just a “like” button, users have a range of responses that include "love," "haha," "wow," "sad," and "angry.” The flower reaction button is the first time Facebook has experimented with a temporary reaction to correspond with a holiday or special occasion.
