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WHAT DO YOU do when a friend pays tribute to a deceased loved one by uploading a photo, or when your cousin complains of a bad day on her Facebook status?

Sometimes, it just feels weird to click “like” (someone’s aunt just died; you’re giving that a thumbs up?), so Facebook is toying with the idea of adding a “sympathise” button.

A developer recently introduced the idea for the button at a Facebook hackathon. The idea is to give users a way to acknowledge things without “liking” them, and apparently, everyone present at the event seemed really excited about the idea.

Here’s how it would work:

• When you write a Facebook status, you have the option of choosing to share how you’re feeling from a drop down list of emotions.
• If you selected a negative emotion like “depressed” from the list, the “like” button under your status would be relabelled “sympathise.”

But don’t start scanning your timelines for the button just yet. A Facebook engineer named Dan Muriello told The Huffington Post his colleague’s creation was “well-received by fellow Facebookers, but isn’t making its way to the site (for now)”.

- Caroline Moss

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