WhatsApp Users Alert! Now you can react to messages, add up to 512 people in groups and share up to 2GB files

New Delhi: Meta-owned instant messaging app WhatsApp announced that the long-awaited message reactions functionality is now available to all users. Aside from that, WhatsApp will get a number of other much-anticipated features, like increased file sharing size and the option to add additional members to WhatsApp groups.

WhatsApp's message reactions feature has apparently been in development for some months. Only a few emoji reactions were supposed to be included at first, but more will be added in the future. Users can go to the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store to check for the update. Currently, it has not started rolling out for Android users in India, but is expected to show up in the coming days. Other platforms, such as Instagram DMs, Slack, Twitter, and others, have similar message reactions features.

Besides emoji reactions, WhatsApp is also raising the maximum file size that can be shared on the app to 2GB, a significant increase from the current limit of 100MB. In addition, the number of people you can add to a WhatsApp group has been doubled. In a blog post, the company stated that it is "slowly" increasing the number of people who can be added to WhatsApp groups. Users will be able to add up to 512 persons to groups after the upgrade. This comes after the Meta-owned instant messaging app introduced the Communities feature.

"It takes work to create private, safe, and secure communities, and we believe that this series of enhancements will help people and groups stay connected,” as per the WhatsApp blog.

"We're thrilled to announce that emoji reactions are now available in the current version of the app; reactions are fun, quick, and help groups avoid overload; we'll keep enhancing them in the future by introducing an even wider range of expressions," says the company,” WhatsApp stated in a blog post.

The company also claims that the 2GB files would be protected end-to-end, and advises users to use Wi-Fi when exchanging huge files on WhatsApp.