Covid-19: Facebook introduces ‘Care’ emoji reactions for main app and Messenger

The ‘Care’ emoji reactions, like others will show up alongside the ‘thumbs-up’ for like reactions, basic heart, and laughing, shock, sadness, and anger emojis.

The ‘Care’ emoji reactions, like others will show up alongside the ‘thumbs-up’ for like reactions, basic heart, and laughing, shock, sadness, and anger emojis. (Alexandru Voica/Twitter)

Facebook has introduced two new emoji reactions for its main app and standalone Messenger app, encouraging users to stay indoors during the Covid-19 pandemic. The 'Care' reaction on Facebook is an emoji face hugging a heart while on Messenger it is a pulsing heart. These, like other emoji reactions will show up alongside the 'thumbs-up' for like reactions, basic heart, and laughing, shock, sadness, and anger emojis.

What's worth adding here is that Facebook's 'Care' emoji reaction is also the first addition in the list of reactions ever since 2015 when the firm expanded from a simple like button, giving people more options to express.

The new 'Care' emoji reaction will start appearing in the main Facebook app starting next week while the one on Facebook Messenger is already showing up in certain regions. While the emojis reaction will show up when you long press the thumbs-up button, on Messenger users might have to make a minor change. In the app while using a reaction for a text message, users will have to long press the regular heart reaction to 'upgrade' to a pulsating heart.  

On Facebook, 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 https://t.co/t0PZL74vjg pic.twitter.com/PkpbCoPc4F

— Alexandru Voica (@alexvoica) April 17, 2020

"We hope these reactions give people additional ways to show their support during the #COVID19 crisis," said the spokesperson Alexandru Voica on Twitter.

This comes in addition to a recent announcement by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding the ability to show messages in News Feed to users who have liked, reacted or commented on misinformation on the Covid-19 that it has taken down. "We want to connect people who may have interacted with harmful misinformation about the virus with the truth from authoritative sources in case they see or hear these claims again off of Facebook. People will start seeing these messages in the coming weeks," said Facebook in a post.