Emoji reactions are a quick way to reply to people’s stories or status updates. The feature is available on platforms like Instagram and allow users to show reactions to particular updates like love, anger or sadness with a quick emoji rather than text. This is also much faster than replying via text and manually sending an emoji.
WhatsApp, one of the most widely used communication platforms, didn’t have the feature. However ,that could change soon. A new report by WABetaInfo suggests that the Meta-owned platform has been developing emoji-reactions for the platform for a while and that we could soon see it in action.
The ‘Quick Reactions’ feature will allow users to react to status updates (WhatsApp’s version of the Stories feature) with emoji. These include emoji like folded hands, claps, party popper and more. We currently don’t know if the list of emoji will be preset or if users will be able to customise the emoji they use most frequently.
As per the report, there will be 8 emoji to choose from when reacting to a status update. These can be seen in a screenshot shared by the publication. Check it out below.
Users will get 8 emoji to choose from. (Image Source: WABetaInfo)
While the screenshot itself is from a beta version of WhatsApp Desktop, there’s a good chance the feature will also come to beta soon for iOS and Android versions of the app.
Quick reactions will be one in several major new features coming to the platform. WhatsApp is also bringing the new communities feature to the app soon, along with other abilities like group admins to remove messages for everyone. Other features like up to 2GB file sharing is also expected to come to the platform soon.
