In comparison with other messaging apps, WhatsApp lacks features despite its popularity. Back in 2017 Facebook introduced a feature in their messenger, called “Message reactions”. Reactions are already familiar to Facebook users. It is an emoji placed on a text message when it is needed to express emotion. Currently, Instagram, Twitter, and iMessage support this feature, and now WhatsApp will too. In the first stages, WhatsApp will develop a message that will be displayed if the user has an outdated version of WhatsApp that is unable to receive reactions. Currently, an old version of WhatsApp, which cannot receive reactions, will display a message asking the user to update WhatsApp in this case, so that they can view the reaction.
When you long-press an Instagram message, you can choose an emoji from a list of options that appears. As soon as you select your favorite, you will also get a notification for the same reaction from the person whose message you responded to. A similar approach could be taken by WhatsApp to introduce this new feature. We are not yet certain if the emoji choice will differ with Facebook and Instagram. Android users will be able to use the feature first, followed by iOS users. The updates will be made available in a future update.
As a related note, WhatsApp could add another payment feature, called “Payment shortcut”, which allows users to send and receive money on the messaging app. If you have already added your card details to WhatsApp, you won’t have to download a separate app to send money. Among other online payment platforms like Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe and others, it is based on the unified payments platform (UPI). The payments icon appears right next to the attachment’s icon in the chat text box in the latest version of WhatsApp. In the past, this option was hidden in the attachment’s icon. WhatsApp pay was first launched as a tester in India with over 1 million registers. Currently, the only two countries that have this feature are Brazil and India, and WhatsApp is planning to bring this feature into other countries soon.
