Star Trek is going where no beloved science fiction TV and movie franchise has gone before: straight into Facebook’s reactions.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, Facebook gave its reactions—which it introduced earlier this year as alternatives to “liking” a Facebook post—a Final Frontier makeover. For a short time, when you hover over the “Like” button, you’ll also see a few familiar faces and gestures.
Introduced by Good Morning America on Thursday, users will be able to use Star Trek to react to a Facebook post. The “Like” button is still there, but now you can use the famous Vulcan “Live Long and Prosper” hand gesture for “Love,” emoji of Captain James Kirk and Mr. Spock for “Haha” and “Wow” respectively, The Next Generation’s Geordi La Forge for “Sad,” and a Klingon for “Anger.”
To celebrate 50 years of @StarTrek, @Facebook has change their reactions to a Star Trek theme. #StarTrek50 pic.twitter.com/2iLX6Xmdz3
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 8, 2016
Lindsey Shepard, Facebook Messenger’s marketing lead, explained in a Medium post that Facebook wanted to do something special
“In order to make this understood by all Star Trek fans, we chose the most iconic and recognizable characters and symbols from the original Star Trek series, as well as The Next Generation,” she wrote. “We also wanted to honor the original design and spirit of Reactions, so we needed visual cues that were easy to identify at a glance, like Geordi’s visor. This led us to our final cast: Kirk, Spock, Geordi and a Klingon.”
The customized reactions will be available for a limited time in the U.S. and Canada, according to Shepard. While it’s not the first time Facebook has changed up its Reactions, she notes that Facebook might test more of these elements in future “community and moment-driven events like this one.”
The Reactions are not widely available just yet, but they appear to be rolling out throughout the day.
Update 11:45am CT: To get access to the Star Trek reactions right now, go like the official Star Trek Facebook page!
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