WhatsApp Update: WhatsApp may soon allow you to use emoji to respond to texts

New Delhi: WhatsApp appears to be iterating on its rumoured Instagram-like message replies feature. The feature has previously been noticed, and rumours about it have circulated for several months. The functionality, which is currently available on WhatsApp's sister platforms Messenger and Instagram, allows users to use emoticons to respond to individual messages in a discussion.

A new response information tab has been discovered, and it is claimed to be in the works right now. Users will be able to check who reacted to the message using this reaction information tab.

WhatsApp message reactions

According to rumours, the message reactions function would be available in both solo and group chats. WhatsApp, like Messenger and Instagram, is going to allow users to respond with several emoticons.

According to WABetaInfo, the functionality could be included in future updates, though it is currently in development and has not yet been deployed to Beta versions.

We believe that, for the time being, the reactions to a message will appear below the message, and that clicking on it will open the reaction info tab, where users will be able to see who has reacted to the message.

WhatsApp reaction info tab

According to an image given by WABetaInfo, the details tab has "All" as the first item, which lists all of the reacts, and then additional tabs are sorted into individual emojis, displaying who has used whatever emoji to react - similar to Facebook's post likes and reactions.

This is why it appears that WhatsApp will allow users to respond to messages with several emojis. According to the WhatsApp features tipper, a user will only be allowed to respond to a message once and will have six options to pick from.

While the functionality has been observed in development for WhatsApp, it is also rumoured that the platform is working on an Android version.