Google rolled out emoji reactions to personal Gmail accounts a little over two years ago, and I completely forgot about it until now — probably because the option is hidden within a small, smiley face icon beside the Forward button. But now, Google is bringing emoji reactions to all Workspace users by default on February 9th, reminding me of their existence (and all the times I could’ve replied with a “thumbs-up” instead of a full-blown message).
Selecting the inconspicuous smiley face button displays a range of emoji you can use in place of a written response. If your recipient is another Gmail user, they’ll see your reaction at the bottom of the email, as well as see the emoji as an update to the thread in their inbox. People using other email providers — or if they have emoji reactions disabled — will receive a separate email saying that you “reacted via Gmail.” Google introduced emoji reactions as an opt-in feature for Workspace users last April, so you may have seen them attached to your work email before this announcement.
Additionally, emails sent to multiple people will show how many people reacted to the message, and with which emoji. You can also hover over each reaction to see who it was from. As noted by Google, you won’t see the emoji reaction option for all emails, including if the message was sent to a group email list, if there are more than 20 recipients, or if you’ve “already sent more than 20 reactions to the same message” (lol).
Now that I know this feature exists again, I’m still not sure if I’m going to use it. Choosing an emoji might be easier than saying, “Thanks,” but I’m not sure if I’m ready to make my emails sound more like my text messages.