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You can soon react to WhatsApp messages with emojis, but it’s broken right now

By Tushar Mehta October 29, 2021

Amid the backdrop of Facebook renaming itself Meta, WhatsApp added a new way for users to get away with not indulging in small talk. As part of the company’s vision to unify the experience in all its apps, Facebook-owned WhatsApp might now allow users to respond to messages with emojis, just like on Instagram and Facebook Messenger. The only barrier, however, is that the feature is not fully functional yet.

After being spotted in August by WABetaInfo, emoji reactions are now rolling out to certain WhatsApp users. The feature is now available starting with WhatsApp’s 2.21.22.17 beta update and is apparently limited to the app’s Android version at the moment.

Just like on the other Facebook — err, Meta — apps, you can long press on a certain message bubble to choose from the six designated emojis and share reactions such as approval, love, humor, amazement, sadness, and gratitude. However, it is worth noting while you can select an emoji, the registered reaction is not visible to the person you’re sending it to at the moment. In short, the feature is only either partially implemented or broken.

I am running the latest version of the WhatsApp Beta on my phone and tried to test this feature with my colleague, Prakhar. As you can see from the screenshots below, while I can choose from one of the six emojis, the reactions are not visible to him.

whatsapp emoji reactions — Image used with permission by copyright holder

So, we can either expect the company to fix this unfinished feature in the coming updates or remove it until a finalized version is rolled out.

If you would still like to try reacting to WhatsApp messages with emojis, you can sign up for WhatsApp beta on the Google Play Store, wait a few minutes for a new version to become available, and then update the app.

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