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WhatsApp for iOS now rolling out long-anticipated Reactions feature, here’s how to use it

After months of testing, WhatsApp is finally rolling out its long-anticipated Reactions feature. This announcement was made by Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg on a Facebook post. With that, iOS and Android users will be able to react to a message as similarly as they can on Instagram.

It’s important to note that Reactions started to roll out today, which means it can take several days and even weeks for the feature to start working for all users. As of now, people will be able to react with six different emoji: thumbs up, red heart, laughing face, surprised face, teary face, and hands together as thanks/prayer.

WhatsApp also posted how to use the Reactions feature in its FAQ:

  1. Long press on a message.
  2. Tap to select one of the displayed emoji.

Just like Instagram, users can change their reactions to a different one by long-pressing the same message and changing the emoji, or just clicking on the same one to remove it.

WhatsApp also notes a few things about this new feature:

  • You can only add one reaction per message;
  • Reactions to disappearing messages will disappear when the message disappears;
  • It’s not possible to hide reactions or reaction counts;
  • Recipients might see your reaction before you remove it or if removing it wasn’t successful. You won’t be notified if removing a reaction wasn’t successful.

In the near future, WABetaInfo says WhatsApp is working on the ability to let users add any emoji as a reaction.

Apart from this feature, the company has been rolling several other features, such as the ability to call up to 32 people, create a Community, and more.

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