The instant messaging application thus extends to all its emoticons the new functionality that it rolled out two months ago and that other apps such as Telegram or Slack were already using
WhatsApp users will have the ability to react to comments with any emoji. This was announced this Monday by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, the parent company that owns the app instant messaging. “We are rolling out the ability to use any emoji as a reaction on WhatsApp,” he explained in a publication From Facebook.
This possibility comes two months after the social media giant announced the new feature that allowed app users to use six emoticons as a direct reaction to messages, as messaging applications such as Telegram, slack either Messenger (also owned by Meta), as well as other platforms such as Discord. Now, WhatsApp extends that function to all available emojis, which have been expanding over the last few years.
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
To access it, the user just has to long press the message they want to react to. Then a small window opens with the different emojis available. Currently they are the hand with the thumb up, the red heart, the laughing face, the surprised face, the sad face and the praying hands.
This expanded reactions feature is rolling out to beta versions of WhatsApp on both Apple’s iOS and Android operating systems. Although there is no specific date on the calendar yet, it is expected to be fully available in the coming weeks.