Facebook’s like button is getting a new look, swapping the letter ‘F’ with the more universal thumbs up symbol.
The move is part of a broader redesign of Facebook’s social plugin buttons that makes them flatter and more distinct.
Previously, the buttons for liking and sharing both used Facebook’s corporate logo. Now they have their own icons.
“Our hypothesis was that more people would recognize the thumbs-up icon on the like button, so we conducted qualitative and quantitative tests to measure them side by side,” the company said in a blog post. “The results revealed a 6 percent increase in likes, so we are switching the like button from the Facebook ‘f’ logo to the thumbs-up icon.”
Additionally, new versions of all our Social Plugin buttons are now available with the following improvements:
Mobile-friendly: The original Like button was designed when mobile was in its early days. Over 30% of Like button impressions come from mobile devices, and we are releasing new button sizes so you can choose the best one for your site on desktop or mobile.
Cleaner design: The new design system will work across all our buttons, and includes colour consistency, a flat button design, and Like and Share counts within the button for a cleaner, more refined visual style.
Backwards compatible: The Like and Share buttons are embedded in millions of third-party sites, and the new version works on all sites and languages.
Instant Articles integration: In the coming weeks, Instant Articles publishers will be able to add Like, Comment, and Share buttons to the bottom of their Instant Articles, and interactions with these buttons will be included in aggregate Like and Share counts. The comments Plugin will sync the conversation with its Instant Article equivalent. If you have Comment Mirroring turned on for the Comments Plugin, comments from the article’s post in News Feed will be synced with the web article and the Instant Article, creating a unified thread across all three surfaces.
There are also new icons for following, recommending, and saving articles to read later.
Facebook is also adding buttons for liking, sharing, and commenting to its fast-loading Instant Articles format in the next couple weeks, the company said.