Update: The Facebook Care Reaction is gradually hitting Facebook’s iOS as well as the Android app. The web version is getting the emoji as well. Some users have reported that uninstalling and installing the Facebook app helped them get it.
The whole world is following social distancing owing to the continuing lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it’s the opposite in the virtual world of social media, Facebook, and its products (Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, etc.) to be specific. And Facebook is now coming up with a new way to express support and presence in the app. It’s launching a new reaction for “care” that goes by an emoji hugging a heart for and a pulsating heart aside from the old ones — like, basic heart, laugh, shock, sadness, and anger.
It’s the first addition since Facebook decided to launch special reactions atop of regular thumbs-up back in 2015. The caring emojis (emoji hugging a heart) is rolling out in the main application this week. However, the pulsating heart already made it to the Messenger. But how to get it? All you have to do is press the existing reaction to see the new heart or create a new reaction altogether to a conversation.
Similarly, the pulsating heart is said to express extra love and care to family and friends. You can long-press the heart reaction to get the emoji while repeat the same to get the earlier one.
A spokesperson on the reaction states, “We hope these reactions give people additional ways in order to show their support during the COVID-19 crisis. We know this is an uncertain time, and we wanted people to be able to show their support in ways that let their friends and family know they are thinking of them.”
But how exciting is it? Or does it even make sense to you? Well, maybe. Adding a few emojis in response to a post could be a tiny curtsy but turn out to be an empathy we all require in the meantime. We are putting ourselves in isolation, far from one another while connecting via social media. And Facebook and its products are the crucial parts of it.
The company is working on a number of levels ranging from efforts to drive out and eliminate misinformation, benefaction to media personnel that reports the news properly as well as small businesses, aiding public health initiatives to bring out crucial messages, donating masks, and so on.
