If you spend enough time using social apps, you get used to some UX models. One example is the ability to react to a message or post – think Instagram or Twitter DMs – but you don’t see that so much with more traditional chat apps. WhatsApp would like to change that, however, and is working hard to bring message reactions to its app.

According to WABetaInfo, the reaction feature is currently under development. Some users have received the message below which informs them that they have received a reaction but cannot see it with their version of the app, suggesting that it is tested internally or with a very small number of users on a version that is not public.

There is very little to do other than this post, but we can expect the feature to appear in an upcoming beta of the app. Presumably we’ll have a specific set of emoji to react to, although we’re not sure exactly how WhatsApp is going to implement this yet. With Facebook Messenger, there is a row of 6 responsive emoji that can be personalized, and Instagram has the same in some places or just likes in others. I think the iteration of WhatsApp will be close to what we see on Messenger, but we’ll see.

What is your reaction to this news? I think it’s pretty 🌞