iMessage Reactions Will No Longer Annoy Android Users Thanks to Emoji Change

Last Friday, code suggested Google would soon roll out an update for Google Messages that would display iMessage Reactions from iPhone users as emoji on Android devices, and now that update has started rolling out.

android imessage reactions

Screenshots from 9to5Google reader Jvolkman

According to 9to5Google, some Android users are beginning to see iMessage reactions in Google Messages as emoji that are linked to the relevant conversation.

Google Messages appears to be interpreting iMessage reactions just like reactions sent through the RCS protocol used for Google Messages rather than providing them in a text format.

Prior to the Google Messages update, if an ‌iPhone‌ user added a reaction like a heart or thumbs up to a message in the Messages app, it would look odd on an Android device while showing up appropriately on an ‌iPhone‌. Adding a heart icon to a message showed a little heart on ‌iPhone‌, for example, but on Android, it would show up as [Person] "Loved" and then the text of the original message.

The text-based system could lead to awkwardness, especially with Android users unaware of iMessage reactions. It also cluttered up the chat thread by unnecessarily repeating texts.

As shown in the screenshots above, the reaction messages are linked to the chat bubble, and they also use icons pulled from the ‌RCS‌ system. As 9to5Google points out, the little heart for "loving" an image on ‌iPhone‌ is replaced with a heart eyes emoji on Android, and the laugh iMessage Reaction is translated into a laughing face emoji.

Android devices will also display a "translated from ‌iPhone‌" icon so that Google Messages users understand where the reaction is coming from.

Top Rated Comments

oncoutinho Avatar
32 months ago
Would be nice if iPhone users too could not have to see the "so and so liked [message content]" on non-iMessage threads.
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TinyMito Avatar
32 months ago

Would be nice if iPhone users too could not have to see the "so and so liked [message content]" on non-iMessage threads.
Liked "Would be nice if iPhone users too could not have to see the "so and so liked [message content]" on non-iMessage threads."
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
halfway2anywhere Avatar
32 months ago

Now if only 2 year old Android phones were able to get updates.
With android, you don't need an entire OS update to get the most recent messages app.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
unashamedgeek Avatar
32 months ago
I'd like to see this happen in iMessage when in a group thread of mixed users. It'd be great to not see all the someone liked a comment or photo messages.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
avatar77 Avatar
32 months ago
Great, now it's Apple's turn - add RCS support in Messages. Please for the love of all that is good, do it!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
munpip214 Avatar
32 months ago
Bummer! I love to annoy the green bubble people (all my real friends are blue of course ?)
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iPad And Calculator App Feature 1

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...