From CNET: Google's Messages app is getting a series of updates that will bring the texting app to better parity with Apple's iMessage and Meta's WhatsApp. But one feature, in particular, might be initially annoying for anyone using a non-Android phone.
Announced in a blog post on Thursday, the Messages app will now support the ability to reply to any text with an emoji. But when a conversation isn't conducted over RCS, it will do that by sending an SMS text that denotes the emoji used while quoting the message the reaction is meant for. The experience will be very similar to how the iPhone handles emoji reactions on text messages between iPhone and Android users.
Google earlier this year added a feature that translates those texts into the appropriate emoji reaction for Android devices.
Google's Jan Jedrzejowicz, who serves as product lead on Messages, said at a reporter roundtable that the feature is meant to add consistency to the Messages app rather than blocking the reaction feature from non-RCS conversations entirely. Regarding how the texts could initially appear in Apple's iMessage, Jedrzejowicz said it will be up to Apple to decide whether or not to parse those texts into the appropriate emoji reaction.
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