Social networking sites Facebook and Twitter and internet search giant Google have rolled out special features and emojis to let people add some Olympic spirit to their digital communications.
“Twitter is the place where all the live action is at present,” Aneesh Madani, head of sports partnerships at Twitter India told ET. “With over 1,700 international and 35 top Indian athletes tweeting live, we have most diverse range of voices our users can connect to. And it’s not just following their heroes, or experts, we also have the official account of Olympic Flame, tweeting in first person.”
Additionally, Twitter has launched over 250 emojis related to the Olympics — from flags to medals to sports. Users can tweet with # followed by three letter country-code to unlock a special Twitter emoji with the national flag. The hashtags that trigger the emojis will be available in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. The hashtags that trigger sports emojis, as well as #Rio2016 and #Olympics, are also available in Japanese, Korean and Arabic. All emojis will be available in the coming days.
Similarly, Vine and Periscope will offer fans inside access, commentary, highlights and conversation throughout the Games, Madani said.
Facebook is launching profile frames, masks and more for users. People can show support and cheer for their country or favourite teams by adding a frame to their profile picture.