Facebook Adds Like Button To Mobile Messages, A One-Touch “OK” Josh Constine Saturday, June 22nd, 2013 “Alright”, “Yes”, and the much-hated “k” just got a visual redesign. Facebook’s iOS and Android apps have rolled out the option in messages to reply with a one-tap thumbs-up Like button sticker. It’s a highly-functional flourish that replaces the greyed-out Send button when you haven’t typed anything. And while it seems simple, I’m finding it quite satisfying. Facebook confirms with me that the “Like Reply” button, as I’m calling it, was “part of a recent update”. However, it doesn’t appear to have been included in any of the “What’s New” release notes. That meshes with my suspicion that Facebook sometimes adds new mobile features and either doesn’t announce them, or notes them a few updates after they appear. Cheeky. The Like Replies are now available in Facebook and Messenger for iOS and Android, plus m.facebook, but not on desktop. Update: Path 3 had this feature first. It was included in the Path 3 update a few months ago. Path design uses a checkmark which I find to be a lot more ambiguous than the thumbs-up. Still, considering Facebook also added stickers soon after Path did, there may be a fast-follow trend emerging. Distilled Communication Stickers have blown up recently as people search for quick and vivid way to share emotions while mobile messaging. But usually you have to dig those out of a menu. Meanwhile, texting was built for efficient communication. One of the most common things you have to communicate is an ‘affirmative’. Yes to whatever you just said. I agree. I approve. I acquiesce. And so “k” was born. A one-letter affirmative. But it still requires several clicks. To open the messaging field, to type the letter, and to send it. But *BAM*, the Like Reply button does it in a single gesture. Facebook even has a Like button thumbs-up sticker, but this makes it instantly accessible in the right situations. The bright blue one on Android looks especially sharp. Yes, this will save you one second. But it could save you and everyone else that one second hundreds of times, multiplied by 750 million mobile users a month. Efficiency matters. I’ve always wanted this for text messaging. Actually, not just for replies but as way to signal to people that was lighter-weight than a text message. I called it the “nudge”. A little buzz, even more subtle than an SMS. If I said I’d pick you up in 10 minutes, and you get a nudge 11 minutes later, it means come outside. If it’s late and I want to see if you’re up, I might nudge you. If I’m free to meet up with friends and want to ping a bunch of them? Mass nudge. Much less annoying than “Hey guys wanna hang out with me? I’m lonely.” This is nice step towards my dream of openly interpretable binary communication. Try it out next time you need to confirm something via Facebook message. We’ll see if it catches on. FACEBOOK Company:Facebook Website:facebook Launch Date:February 1, 2004 IPO:NASDAQ:FB Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 1 billion monthly active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original idea for the term Facebook came from Zuckerberg’s high school (Phillips Exeter Academy). The Exeter Face Book was passed around to every student as a way for students to get to know their classmates for the following year. It was a physical paper book until Zuckerberg brought it to the internet. With this success, Zuckerberg, Moskowitz and Hughes moved out to Palo Alto for the summer and rented a sublet. A few weeks later, Zuckerberg ran into the former cofounder of Napster, Sean Parker. Parker soon moved in to Zuckerberg’s apartment and they began working together. Parker provided the introduction to their first investor, Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal and managing partner of The Founders Fund. Thiel invested $500,000 into Facebook. With millions more users, Friendster attempted to acquire the company for $10 million in mid 2004. Facebook turned down the offer and subsequently received $12.7 million in funding from Accel Partners, at a valuation of around $100 million. Facebook continued to grow, opening up to high school students in September 2005 and adding an immensely popular photo sharing feature the next month. The next spring, Facebook received $25 million in funding from Greylock Partners and Meritech Capital, as well as previous investors Accel Partners and Peter Thiel. The pre-money valuation for this deal was about $525 million. Facebook subsequently opened up to work networks, eventually amassing over 20,000 work networks. Finally in September 2006, Facebook opened to anyone with an email address. In the summer of 2006, Yahoo attempted to acquire the company for $1 billion dollars. Reports actually indicated that Zuckerberg made a verbal agreement to sell Facebook to Yahoo. A few days later when Yahoo’s stock price took a dive, the offer was lowered to $800 million and Zuckerberg walked away from the deal. Yahoo later offered $1 billion again, this time Zuckerberg turned Yahoo down and earned instant notoriety as the “kid” who turned down a billion. This was not the first time Zuckerberg turned down an acquisition offer; Viacom had previously unsuccessfully attempted to acquire the company for $750 million in March 2006. Not long after, in October 2007, Microsoft invested $240 million into Facebook for 1.6 percent of the company in. This meant a valuation of over $15 billion, making Facebook the 5th most valuable US Internet company, yet with only $150 million in annual revenue. Many explained Microsoft’s decision as being solely driven by the desire to outbid Google. Facebook continued to receive funding, most notably in January 2011 receiving a $1.5 billion round, valuing the company at $50 billion. A year later, in February 2012, Facebook announced that it was filing for its long-anticipated initial public offering. The company went public on May 18, 2012, opening on the NASDAQ with shares trading at $42.05. One sour note for Facebook has been the controversy with social network ConnectU. The founders of ConnectU, former classmates of Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard, allege that Zuckerberg stole their original source code for Facebook. The ordeal has gone to court, and has now been resolved. Notwithstanding this lingering controversy, Facebook’s growth has been staggering. Facebook announced astonishing numbers in February 2012 upon filing for its IPO. Over 845 million users log into Facebook every month, and 483 million users log in daily. Mobile users now make up half of Facebook’s user base, with 425 million monthly actives. Facebook also announced that by the end of 2011 there had been 100 billion friend connections, and in recent months users had been registering 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day. Facebook is one of the most trafficked sites in the US, and its international growth has been impressive. Additionally, Facebook is the top photo sharing site with 250 million photos uploaded per day. Facebook users’ passion—or addiction—to the site is unparalleled: more than half use the product every single day and users spend an average of 19 minutes a day on Facebook. The site’s popularity has garnered it pop culture fame, so much so that in 2010 a feature film entitled The Social Network was released which chronicled Facebook’s inception. In its 2012 IPO filing, Facebook announced that it intends to grow in the near future by expanding its global user base, increasing engagement by developing new social tools, improving the mobile experience, and creating more value for advertisers and users. Recent Milestones Facebook — Facebook Has 1 Million Active Advertisers (6/18/13) 51 Posted 7/26/12 at 6:45pm via businessinsider Facebook added Greg Whalin as Product Manager. (5/6/13) Posted 6/18/13 at 7:26pm Facebook acquired Parse. (4/25/13) Posted 4/25/13 at 1:28pm via techcrunch Facebook acquired Spaceport.io. (4/23/13) Posted 4/23/13 at 12:25pm via techcrunch Facebook acquired Osmeta. (4/11/13) Posted 4/11/13 at 8:02am via techcrunch Facebook acquired Storylane. (3/8/13) Posted 3/8/13 at 2:26pm via mashable Facebook acquired Atlas Advertiser Suite. (2/28/13) Posted 3/1/13 at 4:46pm via techcrunch Facebook added Tuhin Kumar as Product Designer. (2/1/13) Posted 2/18/13 at 12:14pm Facebook acquired Face for $60M. (11/22/12) osted 10/24/12 at 1:13am via techcrunch Facebook added Skyler Vander Molen as Communication Designer. (10/22/12) Posted 12/6/12 at 9:31am Facebook added Pablo Gil as Media Solutions. (10/8/12) Posted 10/29/12 at 12:46pm Facebook added Gil Hirsch as Product Manager. (10/1/12) Posted 6/23/13 at 12:13pm Facebook added Lukasz Wiecek as Software Engineer, Intern. (9/24/12) Posted 1/22/13 at 4:48pm Facebook added Eitan Shay as Product Manager. (9/1/12) Posted 10/5/12 at 9:24am Facebook acquired threadsy. (8/24/12) Posted 8/24/12 at 10:04pm via techcrunch Facebook acquired Spool. (7/1/12) Posted 8/29/12 at 2:18pm via techcrunch
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 10:27:29 +0000
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