Gmail now has emoji reactions, for better or worse

Emojis were already almost everywhere. Everywhere except Gmail. Would you like your email service to provide this functionality? Well, whether you do or not, it’s here now. Gmail is getting emoji reactions, starting with Android phones and tablets.

Undoubtedly, if this proves popular, it will quickly spread to iOS and the web. Similar to how your favorite chat app already does it, emoji reactions will be available on every Gmail message. After opening a message, scroll down and you’ll find the new emoji reaction button on the right Answer, Reply to allAND Forward. Tap it and you’ll get a row of emojis you can react with, tap the one you want and that’s it, you’ve reacted.

Unsurprisingly, you’re not limited to the default selection of emojis to react with. By tapping the plus button at the end of the row you can add more. All reactions to an email will be visible at the bottom, and if you tap and hold on each one you’ll find out who reacted that way. If you simply tap (without holding) an existing reaction, you will also react the same way.

But wait, there’s more! The party popper emoji will allow for a full-page animation, and Google promises that other select emojis will also have such magical powers. You can also remove an emoji reaction by tapping Cancel immediately after creating it. This Undo option will appear as long as you have “Undo send” set for emails in the Gmail settings on your computer.

Now for the not so fun part. If you use a third-party email client with your Gmail account, each individual emoji reaction will come as a separate email response. Everything is fine. To separate. One. The same applies if conversation view is turned off in Gmail.

Emoji reactions will not be available for school or work accounts and will not be served if an email is sent to more than 20 people, to a group email list, if you are in BCC, if you have already sent more than 20 reactions to the same message, if the sender has a custom reply address or if the message is encrypted with client-side encryption.

If you don’t see emoji reactions in Gmail yet, know that when Google activates such a new feature it usually takes at least a few days before everyone gets it.