The Google Messages app on Android devices could soon display iMessage reactions in the form of emoji characters instead of text, it is now reported.
Most iPhone users are familiar with Apple's Reactions feature in the Messages app. If you tap and hold on a message, you can add a heart, thumbs up, thumbs down, laugh, exclamation point, or question mark to the message. If the recipient has an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, they'll see the reaction as intended. However, this isn't the case if the recipient has an Android phone. Instead of a reaction, Android users will see something similar to "[User] loved [entire text message]." Some of these messages are inconvenient and can also be misunderstood.
iPhone and Android users: Will Google decide to implement the feature?
But that could soon change. A new code published by 9to5Google discovered suggests that Google Messages will soon display iMessage reactions as emoji. The code contains a line with the text "ios_reaction_classifcation" followed by "Show iPhone Reactions as emoji." The feature is not yet enabled in the new beta version, so Google is probably still working on it. Displaying an emoji for an iMessage reaction could avoid some of the inconveniences of interaction between iOS and Android users in the future, should Google ultimately decide to make this change. (Photo by Denys Prykhodov / Bigstockphoto)
