Facebook has been adding in some new Easter eggs recently, and users are able to unlock the secret features just by typing a few words in the status bar.
Facebook has a long history of adding Easter eggs to surprise and delight users as they stumble upon them.
Earlier this year – to mark the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter – users got a special surprise when they posted about the JK Rowling books.
If a Facebook user typed in the name of any Harry Potter house, the name would be displayed in the house’s colour and a magical effect would appear on screen.
And one of the most famous example of a Facebook Easter egg appeared in early versions of the world’s most popular social network.
Back in the day, Facebook users were treated to a surprise when they typed in the ‘Konami Code’ – an old cheat code from 80s video games.
When they entered those ten strokes on their keyboard, it would bring up a lens flare effect that moved around the screen as you scrolled.
That Easter egg was scrapped by Facebook back in 2009, but they have introduced new secret features recently.
Facebook for awhile has been experimenting with hidden animations that are trigged when users type specific words into the status bar.
For example, when “congratulations” or “xoxo” is typed these phrases bring up colourful animations or balloons or hearts.
And now Facebook is updating the list of words that triggers these animations, according to Mashable.
The words “rad”, “off”, “lmao” and “thank you so much” now trigger their own colourful posts and animation effects.
Facebook is also updating the animations that appear with reactions to “life events” like weddings and engagements.
When Facebook users react to a “life event”, all the different types of reactions will be animated when a user clicks on the update.
The Easter eggs are the latest way for Facebook to keep the news feed looking fresh for users.
Another way Facebook has tried to freshen up the news feed experience was by finally letting users post GIFs in comments earlier this year.
The long sought after feature became available in June, with Facebook now hooked up to the Giphy database giving you access to virtually any GIF ever.
To add a GIF into a Facebook comment, you simply have to click or tap the comments box as per usual.
In the bottom right hand corner there is a GIF icon alongside a smiley face for emojis and a camera icon.
All users had to do was click on the GIF icon and immediately they would be shown trending GIFs that they can scroll through.
Above the trending GIFs, there is a search bar where you can enter keywords to find the particular GIF you are looking for.
Other new features that Facebook have added this year is the new colourful status updates.
Users for the past few months have been able to start writing status posts in a bold font on top of a colourful, vibrant background.
Facebook began testing the feature last year before rolling it out to its two billion users in March.