The Rio 2016 Olympic Games begin this Friday with the Opening Ceremony at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and fans around the world will want to stay close to all of the action on all social platforms.
Here is your guide to follow and support your nation during the Olympics Games:
Emojis everywhere!
You’ll be able to share your passion for your favourite teams on Twitter with 207 team emojis. You simply have to tweet with the three-letter country code hashtag and it will trigger flag emojis for every team, including the Refugee Olympic Team (#ROT).
You can also trigger over 50 Olympic and sport emojis on Twitter.
Athletes have already started to spread the emoji message to encourage fans to support their nations and interact with them.
Olympic emojis are here and I’m so proud to launch our very own for @TeamGB… Here it is, just use #GBR And ALSO #Diving of course 🙂
— Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994) August 2, 2016
Excited to be the first Aussie to Tweet the new Olympic emojis… #AUS , #Olympics , #Rio2016 , #Gold , #Athleticspic.twitter.com/ovP9SVRh7p
— Cathy Freeman (@CathyFreeman) August 2, 2016
Twitter, your best platform
Just in time for the Games, there is a new Rio 2016 section on Moments making it easy to follow every piece of news related to your team. You’ll see the option to follow your specific country on Moments, which will be a feature that lasts throughout the Games, so the best of what’s happening with your team will appear in your timeline for the entirety of the Olympics. You can also just opt to follow your favourite sports and events to see this specific content in your timeline with highlights and recaps.
Fans in Rio will also be able to engage with content in real-time, outdoors. Tweets from all over the world will be projected live on Rio’s aqueduct Arcos da Lapa.
Channels and content on Periscope and Vine
Periscope and Vine will bring you closer to the Games as well. Periscope will have a featured channel with Olympic-related content. Vine will also feature Olympics content in the Explore section on the app. If you double-tap a Vine from the Olympic’s account and various team accounts, you’ll find an Olympic Flame instead of a heart.
LIVE on #Periscope: Press Conference pf the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio #RefugeeOlympicTeamhttps://t.co/VJLf6WUl4E
— Olympics (@Olympics) August 2, 2016
Don’t forget about Google!
Google has teamed up with broadcasters in more than 60 countries (including America Movil, BBC and Japan’s NHK) to integrate Olympic highlight videos into both Google search results and YouTube’s Watch Cards. Google is promising plenty of raw Olympics news. Searches will turn up athlete bios, medal tallies and schedules, while the Google mobile search app will notify you when there are event and medal wins.
So now, you have no excuse to follow the Rio Olympics and support your country and favourite athletes. Stay connected!