iMessage reactions finally turn into emojis on Google Messages, in new beta

One of the long-time frustrations of Google Message users have been—you may have guessed by the title—emojis. Since the messaging platform was released in 2014, there has been a persisting incompatibility between emoji reactions sent from iMessage on Apple's iOS, to the newer Android-based messaging service.

Until recently, any messages sent from iMessage to Google Messages users, would show up on the latter platform in some sort of messy transcription in text form. For example, when an iOS user reacted to a message with a "haha," that reaction would show up as a separate SMS reading "laughed at [insert text here]." Somehow, that just doesn't carry the same vibe. 

Back in November, Google had announced it was testing out a new ability to translate emoji reactions properly, so they show up on Google Messages as the appropriate Android emoji equivalent of iOS emojis.

Today, as reported by XDA Developers, Google is finally extending that feature to all users, in an official beta version of the Google Messages app: version 20220121_02_RC00. Even if you get the beta update, you will need to manually toggle on the new feature, by going to Settings > Advanced > Show iPhone reactions.

According to XDA, even the new beta is still far from perfect. Certain emoji reactions are still unable to be deciphered properly by Google Messages. For one, the heart reaction still appears as "Smiling Face with Heart-Shaped Eyes" in Google Messages.

These days, with the chaotic rush of everyday life, and messages needing to be kept short, we very much rely on emojis to express our exact mood and tone of voice. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all. 

Now that Google has taken the first step with this beta, hopefully, we will soon finally have a stable version allowing a proper exchange of text emoji reactions between Android and iOS.