Facebook on Wednesday started rolling out its Reactions feature to comments, some users of the social network are reporting. The Menlo Park, California-based social media giant is seemingly releasing the functionality on a global level, though the staged rollout may take several days to be completed. Comment reactions are reportedly only being added to the desktop browser version of Facebook and it’s currently unclear how long will it take for the company to debut the same feature in its Android and other mobile apps.
The functionality itself works just like post Reactions already do; users are able to hover over the Like button beneath every comment on their News Feed or any other screen, which will prompt an overlay window that will offer them to choose between a number of different Reactions. A similar solution rolled out to Messenger users last month, allowing users to react to private messages received through Facebook’s instant messaging (IM) app. Following the latest turn of events, Facebook users are currently able to interact with almost all content using Reactions, making this feature one of the most universally liked functionalities that the Menlo Park company introduced in recent years. Facebook has yet to officially announce the rollout of comment Reactions, but the firm will likely detail the feature in the coming days.
According to previous reports, Facebook itself was surprised by the popularity of Reactions that it initially started rolling out to select users last year. With the feature now being available across the majority of Facebook’s ecosystem, the company’s next move might be focused on functionality instead of availability, with some industry watchers predicting that the firm will be looking to expand its portfolio of Reactions in the future. Facebook already experimented with alternative reactions during special events like Halloween, but the company has yet to expand on the regular Reactions lineup. Given the firm’s recent focus on video content and ephemeral messaging, it’s possible that Facebook will attempt to combine those elements in the future or maybe even bring Reactions to some of its other services like WhatsApp and Instagram, which wouldn’t be an unprecedented move.