Quick, what’s the most annoying thing about WhatsApp? For me, it’s the inability to quickly post a reaction to someone’s message, forcing me instead to either send an emoji as a separate reply, or write a largely unnecessary response. The feature is present in Facebook’s own Messenger, as well as many other chat apps such as Signal and Viber, but not on WhatsApp.
This may change in the near future. According to WABetaInfo, the reaction feature has gone live for some users who have installed the latest WhatsApp beta for Android, version 2.22.8.3.
The feature is similar to what you get in other chat apps, and the emoji on offer include thumbs up, heart, pray, laughing face, crying face, and surprised face.
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It appears that only a small subset of users are getting this option for now. However, WABetaInfo claims that everyone should be able to see the reactions (making it so much more frustrating for those who can’t use them).
There are no guarantees on when (or if) the feature will become available to everyone, but WhatsApp appears to have been working on it for months, so that moment probably isn’t too far off.