Non-hovering a premium feature? I think, with one function only, it should just stop hovering automatically, as it can only cost missing shares, because:
The hoover appears only on mouse hoover (so far, that makes sense). If the user doesn’t realize he has to move the mouse up, and he clicks instead of the main icon, nothing happens, but the hoover disappears. If he clicks again, nothing happens, which is really not good. The user has to actively move the mouse out of the icon, and back on the icon to see the hover again.
And hopefully he realizes this time that he has to click the hoover, not the icon…
I’m sure this behavior costs shares, because the hoover can be very well recognized as just a tool tip, describing what the icon underneath will do. Many users will not realize that the actual function is only available within the “tool tip” above. Many users will think that the icon “just doesn’t work” and give up.
With two or more functions in the hoover, it is maybe a bit more obvious that you have to click “share, like”, but with only one function I stronly suggest to change the behavior to make it easy to use for “non-web-experts”.
The quick & dirty fix would be to let the hoover stay if the main icon is clicked, so the user hopefully realizes that he has to click the hoover, not the icon.
But I would prefer the behavior the OP described, no hoover at all, if only one function is active.
I just see there’s a difference in behavior between Safari Desktop (what I described above) and Safari on iOS. On iOS the hoover at least stays when the icon is clicked more than once.
