In a recent announcement, the Mountain View tech giant confirmed that it is working to add a new feature in Gmail which has the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate via email by adapting to modern needs of immediacy and expressiveness.
Finally we will be able to avoid, especially when it is not needed or we are in a hurry, typing frantically on the keyboard, perhaps even with some typos, because Gmail is about to introduce reactions with emojis.
In fact, this possible development was already rumored last month and now it’s official: emoji reactions are about to land on the email service. But it will take a little patience for the newness will be implemented graduallystarting with Android users and only in the next few months, will it reach iOS users and the Web interface.
How emojis will work in Gmail
Imagine receiving an email that makes us smile or shed a tear. Instead of going crazy writing an answer that fully reflects our state of mind, we can simply click on the smiley face at the bottom of the message and choose an emoji that best expresses our reaction.
And if we want to make our answer even more fun, some emojis, such as the confetti shooter, will activate afull-page animation adding an extra touch of creativity to email responses.
The use of emoji reactions in Gmail will be similar to the way we use them on social networks like WhatsApp. We will be able to touch and hold an existing reaction to see who added it and touch to reuse a reaction already used by someone else.
Depending on your “Undo Send” settings in Gmail, you will have 5 to 30 seconds to remove an emoji reaction after adding it. To change the length of the sending cancellation period, you need to update your settings.
Unfortunately there are some restrictions
Much like Apple’s iMessage Tapbacks are more useful on iOS, emoji reactions they will work better on Gmail. If you will be using a third-party email client, such as Apple Mail o Microsoft Outlookeach person’s reaction will come by means of a separate email.
Another restriction concerns the fact that reactions with emojis they will not be implemented in school or work accounts. Furthermore, they will not be available if the message is sent to more than 20 recipients, in emails sent to a group of contacts or if the person receiving it appears in CCN (blind carbon copy).
Gmail also imposes a limit to the number of reactions (equal to 20) that can be sent to a single message. So, if a conversation becomes particularly emoji-heavy, you’ll need to choose your reactions wisely. Again, the change will not apply if the sender has specified a custom reply address if client-side encryption has been enabled.
To find out the other details you can consult the dedicated official support page.
