On Wednesday, the social networking giant gave all users the choice of selecting from a group of emojis referred to as "Reactions" to retort to posts with additional nuanced emotions than "like." The new symbols, that augment rather than replace the long-lasting "like" button, represent expressions of love, laughter, surprise, sadness and anger.

Facebook, that has been testing the new icons in Europe for a couple of months, said its members will appreciate a wide range of official icons than simply the thumbs-up to express their feelings regarding photos of your dinner, the latest political meme or news that another classic rocker has died.

"We've been listening to people and know that there should be more ways to easily and quickly express how something you see in News Feed makes you feel," Sammi Krug, Facebook product manager, said in a Facebook post Wednesday.

Facebook, that already lures a fifth of the world's population every month, hopes the emojis can facilitate rope in even more users.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially teased ‘Reactions’ during an occasion at the company's Menlo Park, California, headquarters in September. Acknowledging that "not every moment is a good moment," Zuckerberg said that Facebook would introduce a feature to mirror people's desires for additional ways in which to express themselves.

The emojis will not simply encourage additional communication. Your inflated engagement on the site also will allow Facebook to gather additional data regarding your habits and opinions, serving to make a digital profile that creates it easier to send you more targeted advertisements, the company's chief source of revenue.

To use one of Facebook's new emotional reactions, hold down the "like" button on your mobile device or hover over the "like" button on the web browser to check the range of recently added ‘Reactions,’ then tap on your required reaction image.