Many users on Friday were in for a surprise to find a purple flower emoticon on Facebook along with the other six already existing reactions ( ‘like’, ‘love’, ‘wow ‘, ‘haha’, ‘sad’ and ‘angry’) for posts.
As you must have noticed, the flower says that you can now be ‘grateful’ for posts you see on your feed. But as it turns out, lots of users who came across this emoji were quite confused about what it actually signifies
So, @facebook quietly added a “grateful” reaction overnight. The emoji is a purple flower. A little strange. Not sure when I’ll use that.
— Ben Smeaton (@benny_s_1992) May 12, 2017
I think there is another emoji created by Facebook looks like purple flower. It can be given to anybodies crush or girlfriend
— Sarthak Shiv Raj (@sarthak_512) May 12, 2017
I’m using the purple grateful flower emoji on everything I reply to on fb, even if it’s wildly inappropriate, because WHAT THE FUCK IS IT?
— Nasty Andrea (@MsBeeton) May 12, 2017
What’s the new purple “flower” emoji on FB even mean? You can’t use a non emotional emoji to comment on a Trump article?! Fuck your flower!
— Katie Anderson (@crimsonclover31) May 12, 2017
Some seemed happy about this new development
There’s a new emoji. Its a purple flower I guess I’ll be a lot more thankful now!
— Kahala Azuma Maui (@kahalalei) May 12, 2017
Loving the Purple Flower Emoji😍 Tap on it to see what is does to your screen!
— Rod & Linds Chapman (@rod_linds) May 12, 2017
Have you seen what happens when you choose the purple flower reaction emoji?? It’s in the options with the “like”! Super cute!
— Lauren Moderow (@LuvlyLashLady) May 12, 2017
And then there were others who were not so impressed and instead demanded an ‘eye roll emoji’
Facebook added a purple flower emoji as a reaction but not the eye roll. Not cool. 🙄
— Sarah (@sarahliz531) May 12, 2017
This purple flower/thankful emoji on FB is dumb.
— George Allen (@gallen39) May 11, 2017
I’m glad Facebook added a grateful reaction emoji, but I still think an eye roll or middle finger would have been more useful.
— Laura (@ReallyLaLa1) May 12, 2017
Thank you,#Facebook, for the new cute flower emoji.
Please work on an eyeroll emoji next. God knows so many people need it.— Dennis Roda (@dennisroda) May 12, 2017
But what does the flower emoji really mean?
Facebook has introduced this temporary reaction emoji to mark Mother’s Day which falls on May 14th this year, says this Economic Times report.
So, yes while many of you might have bought flowers for your mother on her special day, Facebook is offering you a digital version of that!
However it’s not the first time Facebook has launched this reaction. Last year too, Facebook had first introduced the flower emoji right before Mother’s Day which disappeared once the occasion was over.
