Google Messages adds support for iMessage reactions in its beta.
The Material You interface on Google Messages // Source: Frandroid
If you have a group of friends where some use iMessage on iPhone and others a more traditional messaging application, you must have noticed that there were some compatibility issues. For many observers, this is due to the fact that Apple does not want to integrate RCS support (the evolution of SMS and MMS) into its protocol.
In the absence of RCS support on the iPhone, Google is therefore rolling up its sleeves and trying to gradually add iMessage functions to its own messaging application.
The future of the past
In the beta version of the application, as pointed out 9to5Google, it will now be possible to read the reactions sent by iMessage users. Previously, these appeared as text describing the emoji being used. Not very nice.
Once this update is rolled out, you should see reactions from your contacts on iPhone appearing in the bottom right of message bubbles, as they do on a lot of messaging apps today.
Be careful, however, some “translation” errors seem to have occurred. Sending a heart on iMessage may result in a smiley face with hearts in the eyes for example. The famous “Haha” turns into a crying laughing emoji.
This option can be activated in the “advanced” menu of Google Messages. A small setting will appear: “show iPhone reactions as emoji”.
You will probably have to wait a little bit before you can try it on your own smartphone. But getting out of the beta phase shouldn’t take too long either.
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