Google Starts Translating Reaction Exclusive From IMessage For Android Phones

Google started translating emoji from iMessage. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - Google has reportedly taken pity on Android users who regularly chat with iPhone owners asking its Messages app to "translate" iMessage-exclusive reactions to basic emoji.

Apple allows iMessage users to respond to incoming messages with various "reactions" by long-pressing on the message and then selecting from several predefined symbols such as a heart, thumb, or the like. However this reaction is not shown to Android users; instead they are sent a plain text description of the response along with the message being responded to.

9to5Google reports that Google changed it with a new version of Google Messages. Now the app will automatically take the iMessage reaction and convert it to an emoji that displays right next to the relevant message along with a note that it is "Translated from iPhone." It can automatically update the displayed emoji if the iMessage user sends a new reaction as well.

Google previously updated Messenger to include reactions, but only if everyone involved had the Chat feature enabled. (Though considering a fallback description for iPhone users.)

The addition helps clean up message threads; now cross platform threads will be just as neat. Assuming, of course, that this feature made it out of this beta version of Messenger.