New screenshots show that WhatsApp is pretty much ready to roll out Discord and Slack-style message reactions. The feature has been in the development stage for some time, but it appears to have entered the final stages.
According to the website WABetaInfo, messages will now display an emoji icon right above a message. Pressing this icon will open a dialog box with six reactions to choose from — and apparently you can only do it once per text, photo or video.
WhatsApp is readying message reactions (secured by end-to-end encryption) in a new upcoming update of WhatsApp beta for Android and iOS. 👍❤️😂😮😢🙏 pic.twitter.com/o9CMW6pnsN
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) February 2, 2022
Want to stay on top of the best tech news of the day? Access and subscribe to our new youtube channel, Kenyannews News. Every day a summary of the main news from the tech world for you!
The feature gives users the ability to quickly respond to messages without having to write anything. The idea is that generic emojis can be used to express, for example, that you liked something (👍), loved a comment (❤️) or had a lot of fun (😂).
After the reaction, the content will be displayed with a small icon of the chosen emoji just below. While the selectable amount is limited, WhatsApp developers are likely to add more options in the future, depending on how the community accepts this addition.
reactions on whatsapp
Until then, people had no idea what to expect from the functionality, as only traces of the code had been found. Now you can understand pretty much everything about how things should work, including end-to-end encryption support in emojis.
In September 2021, for example, a screenshot showed a little more complete functionality than the one presented today. These may be plans for the app, but they shouldn’t make it to the next update.
WhatsApp is expected to bring message reactions to the app on iOS and Android, possibly in an upcoming beta. There is no forecast of a date or when the general public will have access to the novelty.
