Facebook gets in Mother's Day spirit with flowers in Messenger

Facebook is already getting ready for Mother's Day. 

The social network is rolling out a couple special features for Mother's Day, including an experimental flower reaction and a feature that lets you send flowers via Messenger. 

In Messenger, a flower button will appear near the text box for a limited time. Tapping the icon will animate your message, photo or GIF with flowers. There's also a new Mother's Day-themed sticker pack for Messenger in honor of the holiday, that you can find here. 

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Messenger aside, Facebook is also testing a special reaction called "thankful" for Mother's Day that will symbolized as a flower. The reaction, which Facebook tells us will be tested in a few countries outside of the US, was first spotted by Twitter user Sreedev Sharma.

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The "thankful" reaction is temporary and limited to Mother's Day (though you'll still be able to see flowers in the total like count after it goes away) but Facebook says it may experiment with more of these temporary reactions in the future. 

The company didn't elaborate on which countries would be able to see the new reaction but it's not surprising Facebook would opt to limit it to specific markets. Reactions were only tested in Ireland and Spain when they were first rolled out last fall and the company has spoken at length about the importance of making sure reactions will translate in each market (that's why "yay," one of the early reactions, was nixed from final lineup.)

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