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Google Messages could soon let you react to chats like Instagram
- Google Messages could soon get an Instagram-like gesture to react to messages.
- The company could replace the long-press action for reactions with a quicker double-tap gesture.
Google is reportedly testing a new way for users to react to chats in Google Messages. Instead of long-pressing a message to pull up the array of emoji reactions, you might soon be able to double and react to chats. The feature sounds akin to how liking a post works on Instagram.
9to5Google discovered code strings pointing to the double tap reaction feature in the latest Google Messages beta APK. However, the option is not yet available on the beta version of the app. Naturally, it hasn’t reached the stable version either.
Currently, when you long-press a message in the app, you not only get a list of reactions to choose from, but you also see additional options to copy, star, delete, and more. The double tap gesture to react will segregate the two sets of choices, which would be a welcome change.
It might not make the process of reacting to messages faster since you’ll still have to double-tap and then choose the emoji you want to react with. However, it’s also possible Google would reverse the double tap action for simply “hearting” a message. It’s unclear from the code how exactly the feature would work.