The Meta-owned messenger, WhatsApp, following the footsteps of its cousins Instagram and Facebook, now allows users to react to messages using any emoji of their choice. This move comes a couple of months after the initial announcement, where WhatsApp first enabled emoji reactions to messages.
When the emoji reaction feature was first introduced, there were only six emojis for the users to choose from. After a couple of seconds of pressing the message, the six emojis were presented, from which the users could then choose which one to use for reacting to a message. This feature, over time, gained a fair bit of popularity among users, pushing WhatsApp to release this latest update, allowing users to use to access the full emoji keyboard while reacting to messages.
Since you asked…
… all emoji Reactions are here! We’re feeling about it.
Starting to roll out now to Android and iOS pic.twitter.com/Opk7x0n0VP
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) July 11, 2022
WhatsApp Emoji Reactions: Promises fulfilled
At the time of the introduction of this feature, WhatsApp had promised to expand and improve emoji reactions by giving users access to a “broader range of expressions in the future”. Well, it seems that the developers working on the messenger know a thing or two about delivering on their promises.
WhatsApp announced this update through a blog post, saying, “Reactions on WhatsApp are getting even better with a full emoji keyboard including skin tone selector. We’re excited to introduce more ways for users to express themselves while chatting with their family and friends.”
It is to be noted, though, that this update hasn’t been rolled out in the app’s public release yet. This feature update is a part of the app’s beta release for Android and iOS users. The beta releases are available for download. However, the users who are not a part of the app’s beta program on the iOS and Android app stores will have to wait for the feature to reflect in their apps.