There are few things more iconic online than the Facebook Like button. Found underneath every post on the social media platform, the button has become a handy way for sites to encourage engagement.
But now Meta has announced plans to discontinue two of its Facebook Social Plugins in the early part of next year. Specifically, it is the Facebook Like button that appears on external websites, as well as the Facebook Comment button. This is quite a change for the social media giant to come up with out of the blue, so what is the thinking behind it?
Meta says that the main reason for ditching these two social features is a refocusing on the features that people use the most. The implication here is that the Like and Comment functions found on many websites are not being used as much as in the past
In an announcement about the upcoming changes, Meta says:
As Meta’s developer platform continues to evolve, we’re making strategic decisions to focus on tools and features that deliver the most value to developers and businesses. Today, we’re announcing that two Facebook Social Plugins – the Facebook Like button and the Facebook Comment button – will be discontinued on February 10, 2026.
The company provides a quick descriptive breakdown of the purposes of the two features, explaining that the “FB Like Button – Allows users to like external website content” and the “FB Comment Button – Enables Facebook commenting on external sites”.
The explanatory blog post says that usage of these two features has “naturally declined”, and predicts that the discontinuation will see the elements “gracefully degrade”:
This change reflects our commitment to maintaining a modern, efficient platform that serves developers’ current needs while enabling us to invest in future innovations. The plugins that will be discontinued reflect an earlier era of web development, and their usage has naturally declined as the digital landscape has evolved.
On February 10, the plugins will gracefully degrade by rendering as a 0x0 pixel (invisible element) rather than causing errors or breaking your website functionality. This change is intended to only remove the plugin content from your site, and should not otherwise impact your website’s functionality.
The good news for site admins and developers is that there is no need to take any action – unless the buttons have been implemented in a non-standard fashion. Despite the supposedly graceful nature of the transition, Meta provides the following advice:
What will happen:
- The plugins will simply stop rendering (become invisible) on your site after February 10, 2026.
- There will be no error messages or broken functionality and this should not otherwise impact your website’s function or core features.
Optional next steps:
- You may choose to remove the plugin code for a cleaner user experience. This is optional and based on your own timeline and priorities.
- You have until February 10, 2026 to make any desired changes, should you wish to do so.
It is interesting to see that Meta is regarding this change as being small, insignificant and will be of limited impact. Whether this is a feeling that will be reflected by user response remains to be seen.
How do you feel about the change? Is it something that will make a difference to you either as a web user or as a site administrator?
Image credit: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock
