WhatsApp simplifies the way to react to messages.
The desperation of sliding rapidly down a wall of emojis is over.
WhatsApp is rolling out new features and design improvements aimed at streamlining and fostering creativity in messaging. Starting today, WhatsApp users can react to messages in chats by simply double-tapping, rather than having to press and hold. Additionally, the most frequently used emojis will now appear in a dropdown menu instead of the generic selection that was previously offered. This feature is similar to one provided by Discord, where access to the most commonly used reactions is facilitated to avoid searching through an extensive variety of emojis.
While users can still access other emoji options with a simple click on the plus symbol in the reactions bar, Meta's Messenger app continues to limit the display to only five emojis as reaction options per message. It would be interesting to see if this update adapts to Messenger in the near future.
Furthermore, WhatsApp is introducing slight but well-received improvements for chat customization. The filter and virtual background features, which were introduced last year for video calls, are now available for messaging, allowing users to edit photos and videos within chats with 30 different visual effects. The option to share sticker packs directly in chats has also been included, and users can create custom stickers from their selfies by tapping the sticker icon. This selfie sticker functionality is temporarily available only for Android, with support for iOS promised for "soon."
