WhatsApp has started unfolding emoji reactions to all users to counter Telegram, Apple’s iMessage and Slack, and WhatsApp-like sister platform Instagram. The ability to use emoji to react to individual and group chats on the app was announced last month and has been in beta testing for some time. In addition to the reaction, WhatsApp has also increased the size limit of shared files from the existing 100MB allocation to a maximum of 2GB. Meta’s messaging app has also gradually expanded the group size limit from 256 to 512.

The messaging app said in a blog post that emoji reactions are available on the latest version of WhatsApp. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased the launch of React via Instagram Stories on Thursday. The purpose of reactions is to help people quickly express their feelings and emotions about specific messages they receive from individual and group chats without requiring them to send text responses. WhatsApp announced the response last month along with other important features, including Communities. The feature has been in beta for the past few months.

Using Reactions, WhatsApp users will be able to express their emotions, such as like, love, laugh, surprise, and sadness, and thank them for chatting. Ultimately, users can choose from a range of emojis based on references in recent beta releases. To add a reaction, users need to long-press the message they want to react to, then tap to choose the emoji they want to show. The sender of the reply message will be notified as soon as they react to their message.

Users can also delete their message reactions. The user needs to long-press the message they are replying to, then tap the emoji they are responding to delete it. If a user deletes the reaction, the sender will not be notified. This is similar to how we add emojis to the messages we receive on Telegram, iMessage, Slack, and Instagram. In addition to, Reactions, WhatsApp has also introduced an extension of the file size limit for shared files (including PDFs) to 2GB. This will be specifically limited to documents, not media files such as photos, videos and voice messages.

These files are still limited to 16MB. React-like file size limit increases will apply to individual chats and groups.
WhatsApp has separately announced that it has increased the default maximum group size on its platform to 512 members. This means few WhatsApp groups can have more members in the future. As WhatsApp mentioned in its blog post, the expanded group restrictions unfold to users “slowly”. It can set the tone for community features designed to help enhance the group conversation experience by allowing users to bring multiple groups under one roof.