Facebook Introduces Novel Care Reactions To Show Support During COVID-19 Crisis

Although the COVID-19 crisis has brought much pain in people's lives it has also resulted in people coming together and showing support and care for each other. Now, Facebook and Messenger want to make showing that concern and support much easier by introducing new care reactions.

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We’re launching new Care reactions on @facebookapp and @Messenger as a way for people to share their support with one another during this unprecedented time.

We hope these reactions give people additional ways to show their support during the #COVID19 crisis. pic.twitter.com/HunGyK8KQw

— Alexandru Voica (@alexvoica) April 17, 2020

"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," said Alexandru Voica on Twitter. 

The Facebook care reaction is that of a yellow emoji face hugging a heart while the Messenger one is a pulsating purple heart. 

A seventh reaction

"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 Facebook.com," said Voica on Twitter.

Voica also explained how the Messenger reaction will work. "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," revealed Voica on Twitter.

Fidji Simo, head of the Facebook App, shared with The National the work that went into creating the new care reactions.

"We originally launched our set of reactions because people told us they wanted to express themselves in more ways than just through likes and comments – they wanted to be able to express how they felt, " said Simo.

"Fast forward to today, we find ourselves navigating unprecedented times with COVID-19 and many people have been turning to platforms like Facebook and Messenger. Our hope is to give people ways to provide and show support to one another through many of the new features we build."

We have created an interactive page to demonstrate engineers’ noble efforts against COVID-19 across the world. If you are working on a new technology or producing any equipment in the fight against COVID-19, please send your project to us to be featured.