Earlier this week, Instagram unveiled several new features in response to the current restaurant crisis, and now, parent company Facebook is working on its own pandemic-related update. On Friday, the site announced the rollout of new post and messenger reactions so users can share a little extra love during these difficult times.
“We will launch a seventh Reaction alongside the existing six. The new Care Reaction will start rolling out next week globally and you can use it to react to posts, comments, images, videos, or other content on the app and [website],” EMEA communications manager Alexandru Voica wrote on Twitter, adding that Messenger is adding its own separate care reaction, a pulsating heart.
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Messenger is rolling out a pulsating heart Reaction today so people can show extra love and care to their friends and family.
To update the reaction, you can press and hold down the heart reaction to view the new one. To change it back, press and hold the new Reaction again. pic.twitter.com/PufyOsm7zU
— Alexandru Voica (@alexvoica) April 17, 2020
Both care reactions — Messenger’s pulsating heart and the emoji hugging a heart, which is available for posts — are now available on the site and in the mobile app.
“We hope these reactions give people additional ways to show their support during the #COVID19 crisis,” Voica said. “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.”
Additionally, Facebook is working on a number of other projects as well, donating masks, removing misinformation from the site, and providing grants to media outlets and small businesses, TechCrunch reports.
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Megan Schaltegger is a staff writer at Thrillist.
