Google recently launched a campaign called #GetTheMessage last month aimed at convincing Apple to support Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging on iPhones. According to a report, Google’s efforts to improve messaging between Android and iPhone users is evident with the latest feature being tested on the app. A Reddit user has spotted that the Google Messages app is testing the ability to react to messages sent from iPhones. When an Android user reacts to an iPhone user’s SMS, they will see a message that an emoji was used to react to the message.
According to A Report With Android Police, Google pulled Apple. If you recall, iOS users can react to SMS messages, which sends an SMS message back to the recipient (in this case an Android phone) that includes a message specifying which reaction was used, with quoted message text, understood by many. As annoying users.
Google has already updated its Messages app to understand which message the reaction was for, and the app instead displays an emoji next to the message. According to reports, with the new implementation, Google is now backing iPhone users, showing them the same text version of the reaction to the SMS message.
Reacting to messages with emojis is not a new concept. Many cross-platform messaging apps including WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Skype, Microsoft Teams and Instagram come with support for reacting to messages or media with emojis.
At the moment, the only market where this really matters is iOS and Android users living in the US, where many users prefer to use the phone’s default messaging experience. In the case of Android, it is the default Google Messages app with RCS, while the Messages app is the default on iPhone.
