Tech giant Google is widely rolling out a new Google Messages feature to beta users that allows the Android messaging app to correctly interpret emoji reactions sent from the iOS Messages app.
The feature appears to be live in version 20220121_02_RC00 of the app, as per Droid-Life, but not for every user, reports The Verge.
Although it did not work on every phone when tested.
The feature fixes a long-standing issue that can affect SMS chats between iPhone and Android users.
When an iPhone user reacts to an Android message with emoji, the Android user typically sees this reaction sent as an entirely separate text message, resulting in confusion and lots of unnecessary clutter.
9to5Google points out, there are inconsistencies between how reactions are represented on each operating system.
The thumbs up and thumbs down reactions are similar across both platforms, but iOS’s “haha” reaction turns into “face with tears of joy” on Android, while “heart” becomes “smiling face with heart-eyes”. “Exclamation marks” become “face with open mouth” while “question mark” is “thinking face”.
