Google Messages Upgraded with New Emojis

Google has begun allowing certain users of its Messages app to respond to text messages with any emoji, rather than the normal selection of seven that has been accessible in the application for some time.

Emoji Upgrade for Google Messages

The new Emoji functionality in Google Message is similar to what other messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp and paid versions of Telegram, offer — pressing and holding on a message gives you the normal emoji replies, but you can then use the picker to reply with anything you want. At the moment, the extended emoji replies seem to be a limited test.

Similar to any new messaging service feature, the additional responses might be a little tricky depending on who you’re contacting and what communications standards their phone supports. They seem to operate well if both parties are using RCS, Google’s SMS substitute. Other combinations, on the other hand, may grow messy. On the same phone on Samsung Messages which clearly supports RCS, the response is shown as a separate text message, “‘Can you respond to this message?’” The same problem may be observed on iPhones.

It’s hardly surprising that the responses don’t transfer to iPhones. There are hardly any features and apps that smoothly transfer files or carry out contacts transfers across platform. However, for this particular feature, Apple’s Tapback system only allows users to utilize a limited collection of symbols, so it’s doubtful that the company’s Messages software can add an arbitrary emoji to a message. Even if it did, nobody knows how long it would last; after years of Apple users’ replies appearing as distinct text messages for Android users, it looked as though the two firms had figured out a solution, with iMessage and Google Message reactions translating across the two platforms.

Overall, I am pleased with latest addition despite the minor issues. The search engine giant will properly fix the bugs before mass roll out, which can take a few months.