WhatsApp at long last carrying out emoticon responses for messages

WhatsApp is getting a popular feature that Telegram and Instagram users have been familiar with for a quite some time.
WhatsApp is finally getting an emoji reaction feature that will let users react to messages with emoji. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the same on Facebook earlier this week. The emoji reactions feature is already seen on popular communication platforms like Instagram, Telegram and even iMessage, but now WhatsApp users will be able to make use of it too.

The implementation in WhatsApp will include 6 emoji reactions that users can choose from. These are fixed and cannot be changed for now. However, Zuckerberg did announce that we will get more options later. The six emoji include like, love, surprise, laugh, sad and thanks.

Using the reactions feature will be super simple for users.Similar to how it works on other apps, all users need to do is enter a chat window and long-press on a message to bring up the six reaction emoji. You will be able to long-press on text messages as well as images and videos.
Once you have long-pressed on a message and the reaction options have popped up below it, simply tap on the reaction you want.
As per reports, WhatsApp could also bring sticker reactions and GIF reactions to the platform. These features were recently spotted on a developer build and could come to stable versions sooner or later.

In other news, WhatsApp is also testing emoji reactions for status updates. This feature, also in beta right now, will allow users to react to others’ status updates with emoji reactions, just like on Instagram. A leaked report suggests we will have 8 fixed reactions on WhatsApp for Desktop, but it remains to be seen how many options we get on Android, iOS.