Double-tap a message and it gets a reaction. Hold instead and you get the full set, including anything the group has added of its own.
Reactions look like decoration and behave like infrastructure. In a busy group they are the thing that lets fifty people respond without producing fifty messages.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle React in one gesture and change which reaction is the quick one.
- check_circle See who reacted to what.
- check_circle Use reactions instead of replies in a crowded chat.
- check_circle Control which reactions a group you run allows.
Double-tap for the quick one, hold for the whole panel. The counter sits under the message.
add_reaction An answer that costs nothing
In a group of any size, most messages need acknowledgement rather than discussion. Somebody shares a photo; twenty people would like to say they saw it. As replies that is twenty messages burying the next topic. As reactions it is one line under the original.
Reactions are also attributable. Tapping the counter shows who chose what, which makes them usable for something practical — a thumbs-up as confirmation is a list of names, not an anonymous total.
Yours can be changed or removed at any time, and the sender gets a notification for it, which is the one thing worth knowing before reacting to somebody's message from three years ago.
Four jobs a reaction does better than a message
The last one is for people running a group rather than taking part in one.
done_all I have seen this
how_to_reg Confirmations you can rely on
notifications_off Not adding to the noise
admin_panel_settings If you run the group
Reactions are replies that cost nobody anything. In a big room, they are the polite default.
settings Using them
- Double-tap a message for the quick reaction One gesture, no menu.
- Set which one that is In the reaction settings; a thumb suits more situations than a heart.
- Hold a message for the full panel Including a group's own custom set.
- Tap the counter to see who reacted It is a list, not just a number.
- Ask for a reaction when you need confirmation Rather than reading the seen-by list.
- As an admin, narrow the allowed set Three or four keeps them meaningful.
This page is reacting. The curriculum step is the other side: how a channel earns its own reaction set, what boosts unlock, and how a community's custom emoji become part of its identity.
At a glance
- 1React quickly
Double-tap to react, and change the default reaction.
- 2Who reacted
Press and hold to see who used each reaction.
- 3Less noise
A reaction is a quiet way to acknowledge a message.
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