Facebook Adds Giant 'Like' Quick Reply to Messenger App

Yo, Facebook. We're really happy for you. We're gonna let you finish, but the Facebook Poke was one of the best user interactions of all time.

Unfortunately, it's the Facebook "Like" that's getting all the love as of late. As first reported byTechCrunch's Josh Constine, Facebook has rolled out a minor new feature for both its Android and iOS Messaging app. Minor in purpose, that is, but one that's pretty hard to miss.

The tweak now introduces a giant thumbs-up icon — a "Like" — that swaps places with your normal "Send" button as needed within the app. Presumably, it's the kind of thing you'd want to tap if you appreciate the contents of what you received, but are otherwise engaged (or, say, driving) and can't offer up a full reply.

Or, as Constine notes, it basically replaces the "k" that many are used to texting as quick response to a friend's message.

Tapping the big thumbs-up does exactly what you'd expect it to — inserting a huge, graphical thumbs-up into your messaging stream. Here are some more Like parameters: So long as the last message in your conversation is a reply from someone else, you can Like it. You aren't bound by any kind of time window for your approval, save for the inherent personal weirdness of sending a friend a giant thumbs-up out of the blue. You, however, cannot initiate a conversation with a Like, nor can you throw a Like into your conversation after you've previously said something.

It gets worse. You can also Like a Like, which could potentially put you and your buddy into the mobile equivalent of a Facebook Poke War. Please resist the urge to do so, lest it too greatly take away from the evolution of communication that humanity has enjoyed over the past many thousands of years.

Likes don't come with any additional signals to warn you that a friend has proclaimed your conversation worthy of graphical merit. Your phone won't vibrate differently, nor will you hear any fancier sounds to inform you that Facebook's equivalent of the Buddy Christ* just hit your conversation. You also don't get to play with anything fancier than a Like — there's no "thumbs down" graphic that you can use as a quick reply to something you don't particularly care for, to give one example.

It's unclear whether Facebook has any plans to roll out additional graphical replies in the future which, sadly, includes the almighty Poke.