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WhatsApp for iOS rolling out Reactions feature for beta users, another look at group polls

Last week, WhatsApp officially announced it would roll out a handful of features in the coming weeks: Reactions, Communities, increased file sizes, and group polls. Now, in a new beta version of the app, the ability to react to a message is finally being made available.

According to WABetaInfo, beta version 22.9.0.71 of WhatsApp enables the reactions feature. As of now, only six different emojis are available: thumbs up, red heart, laughter, surprise face, sad face, and thanks.

In a future update, the publication already teased that WhatsApp will make all emojis available to react, the same as Instagram already does with its Direct Messages.

To try the function, users just need to update the app, then tap and hold a chat bubble to react to a message. WABetainfo says that if you are a beta user and this feature is not available at the moment, just wait for a new version, as WhatsApp is slowly rolling out the feature to more beta testers in the coming weeks.

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Apart from WhatsApp Reactions, the publication is also giving another look at how group polls will work. Although it’s still under development, WABetaInfo was able to extract how the function is going to look like with version 22.9.0.70 of the app. The publication explains:

As you can see in this screenshot, we have finally discovered the interface when sending a poll. If you haven’t voted a poll yet, you can choose the option to vote. When you press “Vote”, your selected option will be shared with other participants of the group. Note that group polls, their options, and your answer, are end-to-end encrypted, so nobody can see the content of the poll, not even WhatsApp.

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Are you excited to try Reactions and group polls on WhatsApp? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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