WhatsApp is planning to bring iMessage-style message reactions on Android and iOS with reports revealing that the company has been working on this for some time and it is now entering its final stage.
This feature already seen on Facebook Messenger & Telegram will help users a quick and easy way to respond to a message (a thumbs-up or thumbs-down in iMessage, for example) without having to type out a lengthier text-based reply.
The six emoji currently present include thumbs up, heart, face with tears of joy, face with open mouth, crying face, and folded hands. When a reaction is chosen, it appears in a smaller profile below the message.
Something worthy of note is that Facebook Messenger includes a plus button in its reaction options to access a full emoji picker, but currently this doesn’t appear in the WhatsApp screenshots and it’s not known if one will be added in time.
According to WABetainfo, WhatsApp plans to bring the message reactions to WhatsApp on both iOS and Android, possibly in an upcoming beta before being rolled out to the general public.