It has been several months since we last discussed why you can’t see reactions on The Way Up. So, let’s do that now!
The first time we talked about this was back in May when Mark Zuckerberg made his surprise F8 conference for developers. During the Q&A session, he mentioned that they are working on new features for social media sites, including “reaction stickers” (similar to like, love, and hate) and “healing balls”, which would be used to bring people together after something happens.
He mentioned these as upcoming features at the event, but didn’t give any more details. Since then, there have been rumors and reports about both of them being released.
However, it seems that some people may have already experienced them. If you’re reading this article before June 2017, then you’ve probably seen or received a reaction sticker or healing ball feature already.
So what are they? What does the term ‘healing’ mean in relation to this feature? And how did you get yours? Let us dive into all of that here!
What are reaction stickers and what is the difference between them and other types of comments?
I’ll start by talking about what a reaction sticker actually is. This will help you determine if you’ve ever received one or not!
Reaction stickers were initially referred to as an Emoji Reaction.
They aren’t visible to you
There is one major reason why you can’t see reactions in your feed anymore — they’re not displayed to you. Only people who interact with a person’s posts are able to view those comments, which was always the case when the feature was first introduced.
The reaction button disappears once it has been pressed- so someone posting about how funny their friend’s joke was doesn’t show up as “liked” or “love” the post, but instead just fades away. It also only shows up if there are enough commenters to fill out all of the needed boxes.
There is no way to access this hidden layer of the system. This is really unfortunate because it removes another tool from users that may need it. Thankfully, there are some ways to fix this.
They aren’t visible to the person you are commenting on
Unfortunately, you can’t see reactions in comments or as people reply to your comment. Only their friends who have configured it that way will be able to check those.
This is very annoying because sometimes someone would like to know how much of an asshole their friend thinks they are for saying such horrible things about them. Or maybe they just want to let everyone else know what an idiot their friend is so that other people stop talking to them.
Either way, this feature should always be available unless and until it is completely removed.
They aren’t visible to the person you are commenting back on
There is no way to see if someone else has appreciated your comment or not, unless they actively choose to show it to you. If their profile picture changes or new pictures are uploaded, that can sometimes mean they have stopped liking the content of that page.
You will also notice that some people don’t seem to be able to access certain features on the site. This could be because somebody changed their privacy settings, or something was accidentally deleted.
There may even be times when someone deletes their account completely, which obviously removes all traces of activity from the website.
They aren’t visible to everyone at once
With reactions, you get to choose from several options. You can pick something like “Wow,” “Haha,” or even “Love” for someone’s status update!
You cannot however, select one of the reaction types directly underneath the cover photo like you could with a normal comment.
This is because there isn’t an option to add a Reaction as part of the design element. So instead, users create a separate message containing a reaction, which they then embed into their own profile using HTML code.
By doing this, it no longer counts against your limited time on FB. It also allows people to easily view the content of the note without having to go all the way back to the original post.
There are many reasons why you might be able to see some kind of reaction but not others.
For example, maybe your friend has hidden their profile so you don’t have access to their information. Or perhaps they didn’t use the “Add As Friend” feature (only people who are friends on FB can send messages) – in that case, they would have needed to include you in the conversation before they shared their new status, and you two were not yet connected.
They aren’t visible at all
Recent changes to the way that Facebook displays reactions make them almost impossible to find. Gone are the little icons next to status updates, comments, and posts that let you choose from “like,” “love,” “haha,” and so on.
The only place you can now see these reaction buttons is in conversations or groups where someone has tagged you as an administrator. And even then, they’re hidden unless you happen to be looking for them.
If you’ve ever wanted to check out what kind of reactions people have given a status update or comment, this is no longer possible. If your friends have enough access, they may be able to tell you by checking their profiles, but otherwise, it’s just not there.
It’s hard to know if this change was made due to a lack of usefulness, poor user experience, or both. But one thing is clear: people loved the old version more than the new one!
Survey results show that most users disliked the new button design. Only 5% liked it, while 94% either hated it or didn’t like it at all. Almost half of respondents said they missed the easy-to-access reactions feature, while another 40% thought it was helpful to determine how close other people were with you.
We conducted our own survey about the new button style and found similar results.
They aren’t visible in all the right places
Recent developments have made it impossible to see reactions on the mobile app or website of facebook. You can still access them if you use the desktop version, but only users with very high levels are able to view them easily.
Since having re-designed their profile pages back in May 2018, people have been complaining that they cannot find the reaction button at the bottom of posts. It is now almost completely absent.
This isn’t just annoying for individuals who want to leave comments either. Companies and organizations rely heavily on reactions to determine how engaged their audience is about a product or service.
By removing this feature, facebook has put themselves out as a platform that doesn’t value its user base. There’s no reason why everyone should not be able to see what kind of reactions a status update got!
There are some rumors floating around that say this removal was due to the company wanting to implement an alternative way to gain engagement by letting people talk more about things instead of picking a side. This could definitely be true, but it seems pretty obvious that they wanted to go another route.
They aren’t visible on all devices
Another reason why you can’t see reactions is because they are not viewable on every device. You will know that you don’t have reaction viewing if you try to like or comment on a picture, status update, or link and there is no way to do so.
This could be due to your browser being able to access the site’s features or it could be because of what platform you use to access Facebook.
If you are using an older version of Firefox or Chrome, then you won’t be able to see reactions. If you are running one of these browsers on a mobile phone or tablet, chances are you won’t be able to either.
There is a workaround for this however. Simply go into Settings and find Privacy settings. Here you can turn off Reactivity which will remove the ‘Reaction’ button but still let you read comments.
They aren’t visible in all moments
Another reason that you can’t see reactions is because they are not always displayed to users. Only people who are logged into facebook at a given time will be able to view them, which obviously isn’t helpful if you want to know what your friends thought about something!
In fact, there is even one way to gain access to someone else’s reaction by creating an account or logging into facebook as a guest. But this really only applies when someone comments on someone’s profile picture or link-up of some kind.
There is no good excuse for not being able to see how your friends feel about you – it makes us wonder whether they actually care about you or if they just say that because they are selfishly trying to keep up with their own self esteem.
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