The biggest social media apps are here with us this evening in great anticipation of the Reaction Awards. However, at least one distinguished member of the social media academy was not able to join us for this inaugural ceremony because they don't offer any reactions. Let's give a quick mention to YouTube, which has shunned reactions entirely in favour of the simple like and dislike. After all, not everyone can handle reactions.
And now, to the main business of the evening - the Reaction Awards.
Tonight's first award is the Oscar for Best Standard Bearer and we present this award to Facebook. Facebook added the care emoji in March 2020 bringing its range to the 7 standard reactions of: like (thumbs up), love, care, haha, surprise, sad and angry. There is nothing remarkable about these reactions other than the fact they were released early on in 2016, so they became a benchmark of comparison for subsequent apps. We owe it to Facebook for creating this world of reactions where we communicate with half a dozen emoji. Congratulations, Facebook!
The next award of the night is the Oscar for Simplicity. This Oscar is awarded to iMessage. Reactions don't always have to be big, bright and bouncy. iMessage uses six monotone reactions - none of which are faces! There is love, like, dislike, haha, wow/surprise and question. These are true reactions in the original sense of the word. By simplifying the reactions, iMessage has developed an app with the least likelihood of miscommunication. Not bad for a communication app. Simplicity is very underrated and I am very happy to present the Oscar for Simplicity to iMessage.
Next we come to the Oscar for Best 3D Effects. This year’s Oscar for Best 3D Effects is awarded to Teams. Teams offers five reactions in its basic lineup: like, love, haha, wow and sad. Although these options are nothing unusual, Teams has crafted each of its reactions with brilliant 3D drawing. The thumb, the heart and the three reacting faces are drawn so well that they almost appear as if they are 3D spheres. Bravo to the Teams designers!
Moving on to the next award of the night - the Oscar for Most Exciting Reactions. The winner of this category is Telegram. The Telegram app shows seven reactions to choose from: like, dislike, love, fire, care, clap and happy. The reactions vie for your attention with a quick jiggle, and then when you choose one, the reaction explodes onto the message in its own original way. The reaction has a little party on the screen. Telegram has the most emotive reactions - and that's what reactions are about, aren't they?
This brings us to the next award - the Oscar for Most Colourful Reactions. This award goes to Snapchat. The Snapchat app doesn't allow reactions on posts but you will find the most bright and multicoloured reactions in the universe on Snapchat messages. The green like and the red dislike use the universal colours of stop & go to make the meaning of your reaction unequivocal. The sad face is literally blue, the angry emoji is exploding orange and the question mark is a curious purple. Well done to Snapchat for best use of colours!
And our sixth award of the evening is the Oscar for Best Animation. The Academy presents this award to Line for their unrivalled use of animation in their reactions. Line's reactions are unique in that all six of them are round white faces without any box around them. But what distinguishes them above the rest is that as soon as you hold down on the message, the reactions are all moving while waiting for your selection. Each one has been carefully animated so that, for example, Mr Like is raising his eyebrows and thumb, while Mrs LOL is vibrating her mouth and tongue so hard I can almost hear her laugh.
Let's move swiftly on to our next award tonight - the Oscar for Happiest Reactions - and this goes to Pinterest. Pinterest leans into simplicity and has five different reactions each of which are a bright colour with black eyes and mouth. The reactions range from happy to surprised, but it's the simple shapes that really makes these reactions so cute and happy. Great job, Pinterest!
For a moment let's shift attention to our rotten tomato of the night. The Oscar for Most Inappropriate Reactions has been awarded to Jira, the project management tool. Do you enjoy project management tools at work? Well, don't let JIRA stop your fun! They provide 6 possible reactions to every project communication, of which about 4 can be used to troll the other members of your project. You can give the thumbs down, indicate that the project is burning, laugh in the face of your colleague, or just express sadness at the mess of the project. The choice is yours. If you want to send your colleague into an anxiety spiral, the best way to do it is on Jira. Go Jira!
Just before reaching the climax of today's extraordinary event, we come to the Oscar for Positivity. This award is given to none other than LinkedIn. Although the colours are somewhat on the subdued side, LinkedIn provides a lineup of 6 reactions that are exclusively and unabashedly positive. There is not a single reaction that could be used to troll someone. We have like, clap, support (hand under heart), love, idea (light bulb), and happy. The LinkedIn team have clearly given thought to how the reactions will be used and how they want to see communication on their app. Please give a big green round of applause to LinkedIn everyone!
And now. The award you have all been waiting on the edge of your phones for. It's the Oscar for Best Reactions. No one could beat them. It's the app that started it all way back yonder in 2015. The Oscar for Best Reactions goes to Slack! Slack offers just 5 reactions in its basic set: happy, like, yes (tick), love and look (eyes) which are all positive. Plus there are many more original and whimsical reactions to use with coworkers. Thankyou, Slack, for making work fun!
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