Almost every popular texting app like Instagram, iMessage, Twitter, Slack, Facebook Messenger, etc., gives users the ability to react to messages with emojis. But, the most popular texting app, WhatsApp, currently does not have this feature. This is about to change very soon though. After a long wait filled with anticipation and many leaks about the emoji reactions on WhatsApp the feature has finally been officially confirmed!
The announcement
On Thursday WhatsApp announced that it is going to add emoji reactions to its chat app, a feature which will give users the ability to express their feelings toward a message without sending an individual emoji as a message. The announcement was not just about reactions.
Many other long awaited features were confirmed by Whatsapp. The company informed people about communities feature as well as several other new features such as Admin delete access which will allow a group admin to remove any group member’s messages, this is to stop problematic messages from being shared in groups, bigger file sharing, and up to 32 participants on a single audio call. Meta spokesperson Joshua Breckman stated that reactions will be available on all chats when they launch, which is going to be “soon.”
How is the Emoji Reaction feature going to work?
The feature will be fairly limited when it will be released. Users will only be able to react with six emoji. The first set of emoji reactions will include: thumbs up, red heart, laughing smiley, shocking emoji, crying emoji and a hi-fi. However, Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, said that in the future it will support “all emojis and skin-tones”.
Other new updates on WhatsApp
As mentioned before, WhatsApp has announced a bunch of new updates that will make their way to the WhatsApp app. One of these features is the Admin Delete which will allow group admins to remove any group member’s offensive or problematic messages from everyone’s chats. WhatsApp has also increased file-sharing to support files up to 2 gigabytes so that users can collaborate on projects easily. And, very soon users will get the one-tap voice calling for up to 32 people in one audio call. The last and the most anticipated feature announced is the Communities feature which will allow users to bring separate groups together in one place.