Odishatv Bureau

San Francisco: Facebook has rolled out a new 'Care' reaction on Facebook desktop and app to help people share their support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The social media giant is gradually rolling out the care emoji to users. A number of people have already received the new emojis, however, for the majority of users, they will start appearing over the next few days.

The new reactions join the classic thumbs-up, heart, laugher, shock, sadness and anger options that have been available since reactions launched in 2015.

Fidji Simo, the head of the Facebook app, recently told USA TODAY the new reaction option is meant as a sign of caring and solidarity when commenting on a status, comment, photo or video.

"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," the report quoted Simo as saying.

Meanwhile, on Messenger users will get a new pulsating heart reaction.

The company earlier stated that the new set of reactions have been designed to give users additional ways to display their support to those affected by the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Recently in April, Facebook had announced Messenger Rooms that will allow group video calls of up to 50 people.

In Facebook Messenger Rooms, the users can post links in their News Feed or in Groups or event pages. When a room is created, anyone can join via their browser, though hosts can opt to “lock” rooms to new guests to prevent party crashers.

“We’re rolling out a new product called Messenger Rooms, the first video chat designed with social interactions in mind,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

“The ability to feel like you are directly connected with someone live over video” is essential to maintaining that togetherness, Zuckerberg later said during a broadcast on Facebook Live.

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