SimplePractice Warns About New Video Reaction Features From Apple, Could Unintentionally Appear

JAKARTA - SimplePractice, a company offering a telehealth platform, is warning patients about a new video reaction feature from Apple that may allow people to accidentally add heart emojis or virtual fireworks during telehealth video calls. This makes the situation awkward.

As shown in a Mastodon post by Matt Haughey - who said he had a friend who saw fireworks during a therapeutic call after giving a thumbs up in response to questions from his therapist - SimplePractice told patients that Apple devices "could display emojis during video calls" and that SimplePractice had no control over the arrangement.

SimplePractice also discussed the reaction in the FAQ and gave instructions on how to turn off the reaction both on iOS and macOS.

This video reaction is a huge new feature for iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma, which was officially released by Apple in September. When the reaction is enabled by default - you can use hand movements to make certain emojis and animations appear. For example, make a heart shape or add a heart, while the two thumbs up trigger virtual fireworks. There are eight reactions that may be activated with hand movements.

Theoretically, those reactions are a useful way to add something a little extra in video calls. But in certain situations (such as, for example, video therapy sessions or important litigation calls), you may not want to see those reactions at all.

These reactions use relatively common hand gestures - such as single thumbs up, thumbs down, and two different peace signatures also trigger different reactions - so it's easy to understand how people can activate these reactions accidentally. And because those reactions are enabled by default, people might activate them without knowing that it might be done.

Apple itself did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the media about the report.

If you want to turn off a movement-based reaction, here's how to do it. On iOS, open the FaceTime app, access Control Center (on iPhone Face ID, you can access it by sliding down from the top right corner, while on iPhone Touch ID, slide up from the bottom of the screen), tap the "Video Effects" option at Control Center, then tap "Reactions." On macOS Sonoma, open the FaceTime app, click the FaceTime icon in the menu bar, then click "Reactions."