You can finally “wow,” “love,” and “haha” posts on Facebook

Facebook’s “like” button is an institution of the web, but its central place on the world’s most popular social network is about to be challenged. Facebook’s new reactions are rolling out today, allowing you to express more feelings than a simple “like” button.

Facebook has been working on the new reactions for over a year, and it first teased them back in October. Today, “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad,” and “angry” reactions are becoming available alongside the venerable “like.”

Users and pages in the United States are the first to enjoy the new feature, with the rest of the world to follow very soon. We already got to play with the feature on the web, and the Android app will gain the new reactions with an update coming today.

While the feature seems rather basic, Facebook has put a lot of thought into how people use reactions. The company has been testing them in Ireland and Spain, with good results – people seem to like being able to “wow” and “sad” posts, though “joy” and “confused” didn’t make the cut. Apparently, the latter reactions haven’t really caught on in user testing.

Despite the demand for a “dislike” button, Mark Zuckerberg’s company insists that such a negative reaction doesn’t have a place on Facebook and that “sad” and “angry” do a good job of conveying most emotions that people would like to express with a thumb down.

Reactions will be available for individual users and pages, and the company said it would monitor how users employ reactions to prevent abuse.

In the Android app, long-pressing the like button will open up the list of new reactions, while on the web you can react by hovering the cursor over the “like” button.

What do you think of this feature? Will it increase your engagement with Facebook posts?