While everyone is staying at home and social distancing to the best of their ability, most of us, especially those whose love language is physical touch, are longing for some good old hug.
While we can’t give or receive warm hugs soon, Facebook is coming up with a solution. The social media platform will be releasing a heartwarming hug reaction.
Starting Friday, the seventh reaction button will be rolled out. It is an adorable emoji hugging a heart, which is a way for people to show “extra support” while we stay apart as we collectively combat the common enemy – the spread of the new coronavirus.
The reaction joins other buttons including “like,” “heart,” “LOL,” “wow,” “sad” and “angry” and will appear on Messenger starting Friday and on Facebook next week, Fidji Simo, head of the Facebook app, told USA Today.
“This idea of a hug reaction came back consistently as one of the emotions and feelings that were missing from reactions. So that’s something that was always on our minds,” she shared. “And with the crisis that we are going through right now, there is no doubt that people need more compassion, more support.”
Simo explained that the reaction on Facebook will be available to show compassion on status updates, messages, photos or videos while on Messenger. Users can click the vibrating heart “when a regular heart does not feel like enough.”
This might not be the same as the tight hug most of us need but this will do for now.
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