WhatsApp is officially announcing the emoji reactions feature first spied in beta versions earlier this year.
The reactions – which only include thumbs up, heart, crying laughing, surprised face, sad, and praying hands at launch – are rolling out soon to all chats.
WhatsApp says the idea is to keep chats clean, meaning you don’t have to respond with a dedicated emoji within the chat timeline.
“Emoji reactions are coming to WhatsApp so people can quickly share their opinion without flooding chats with new messages,” the company said in a blog post on Thursday.
In a tweet announcing the feature, WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart says more emojis are coming soon, while skin tones will also be available in a future update. You can see how much tidier this is going to look in the video below.
It’s not quite clear whether each of the emoji reactions will summon an annoying ‘reacted to’ notification for all users, but it appears you’ll be able to tap the emojis beneath the message to see who sent want.
The announcement was made as part of WhatsApp’s efforts to create Communities within the app, which will be an extension of group chats and will be arriving within the app later this year.
As part of this drive, the Meta-owned company is also increasing the max file transfer size from 100MB to 2GB. Group video chats will be expanded to include 32 participants, up from the current eight. Admins will also have the ability to delete messages.
“Communities on WhatsApp will enable people to bring together separate groups under one umbrella with a structure that works for them,” the company says. “That way people can receive updates sent to the entire Community and easily organise smaller discussion groups on what matters to them. Communities will also contain powerful new tools for admins, including announcement messages that are sent to everyone and control over which groups can be included.”
