In its Messages app, Google tests a new feature that enables you to respond to emojis. The app, first seen by Reddit users in a thread picked up by Android Police, allows you to respond to a message by pushing it for a long time. Then, in emoji, you may pick thumbs up, thumbs down, wrath and crying. That functionality only seems to work with RCS and is not available in text messages only.

Messages was not the first chat app to collect emoji responses, which can also be reached via Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Apple's iMessage. As with iMessage, you will receive a separate message asking you if you've used an eMoji, instead of having the emoji appearing near the message itself, to respond to any of the messages (for example, because you're not in the test). This sounds like a similar approach to iMessage's green bubble users.

For the time being Google seems to be checking the feature with a few users. It isn't clear, however, whether it's a prerequisite for an emoji reaction to running the new beta version of the app or a flag placed on the service side by Google.