WhatsApp starts rolling out emoji reactions for Android Beta

WhatsApp, the private messaging app owned by Meta and used by over two billion people globally, is testing emoji reactions on Android. Emoji reactions have started appearing in beta version 2.22.8.3 of WhatsApp’s Android app, according to WABetaInfo, a credible source of impending WhatsApp features. Emoji reactions give users a quick and easy method to respond to incoming messages.

The emoji reaction function first appeared in experimental versions of WhatsApp for iOS and WhatsApp for PC a few weeks ago, and now Android users may finally try it out before the public release of WhatsApp. According to the blog post, WhatsApp has limited the feature rollout to a select group of beta testers, and will likely provide it to more of them in the coming days, based on user feedback.

The function allows users to respond to a received message with one of six emoji: thumbs up, heart, crying, laugher, astonished face, or folded hands (which commonly means “thank you”).

Emoji reactions have spread to other messaging apps including as iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Google’s Messages app, and even Twitter Direct Messages. Finally, one of the most popular messaging apps in the world has joined the party.

Because the deployment is gradual, it’s feasible that a new WhatsApp update will take a few days to reach over a billion Android users around the world.