It’s finally here — the tool that can turn your email inbox into a nightmare or pure joy, depending on your point of view. Google is adding the ability to reply to email with emojis.
When you have access, you will see 🙂 at the bottom of the message. Tap that to choose your emoji from the list, then just tap and send. Some emojis will have special powers, including the party emoji 🎉 which will enable a full-page animation. Yay.
It looks like the feature will be similar to how most of us use emojis to respond to social media posts; You can touch and hold an existing reaction to see who added it, as well as tap to reuse a reaction someone else added.
But in a similar way to how Apple made iMessage Tapbacks more useful on iOS, emoji interactions will work better on Gmail. If you use a third-party email client, each person’s response will arrive as a separate email… 😭.
There are a few restrictions. You won’t be able to use emoji interactions with your school or work accounts. It will also not be available if the message is sent to more than 20 people, to a group email list, or if you are sent a blind copy. And in a few other cases. Most importantly, you won’t be able to reply to a message if you’ve already sent more than 20 reactions to that message.
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