We first spotted WhatsApp message reactions in the WhatsApp beta back at the beginning of March, and since then WhatsApp has begun rolling the feature out to users. It now looks like WhatsApp is continuing to develop the feature as a more advanced version of it has been spotted in the latest beta version of the app.
The current version of the WhatsApp message reaction feature allows you to select a message you have received on the app and then select an emoji from a small, predefined list to react to it. This opening version of the feature does bring a new capability to the app, but it is limited in a number of ways.
One of the limits of the current version of the feature relates to reacting to photos and images. When somebody sends several media files at once, WhatsApp will automatically group photos and videos together into albums. At the moment, when you react to these images other members of the chat won’t be able to see the different reactions you have made to each individual item. They will be able to see the reactions, but they won’t be able to see which media items they are reacting to. In its current form, you can only see reactions on a per-image or video basis if you open them and go through them one by one.
This new update fixes that. The update adds richer information to the automatically created albums, including individual reactions to individual items in the album. This might not be the most exciting update, but it is good to know that WhatsApp is continuing to develop the feature. You may also be excited to know that WhatsApp is also working on an update to the feature that will allow you to react with any emoji rather than just the small, predefined list of only six emojis.
As is always the case with these WhatsApp beta developments, we can’t offer you an update on when we can expect these features to roll out to all users. We will, however, keep you informed of all WhatsApp news and developments as soon as we get it, so when we do know the dates for release, so will you. In the meantime, why not check out our 5 favorite features coming to WhatsApp this year.
Image via: WABetaInfo
