Loading player Between Thursday and Friday WhatsApp, one of the most used applications in the world for exchanging messages, introduced the possibility of inserting reactions with emojis directly to messages received, as has been possible for some time with posts on Facebook and other social networks. The functionality was announced in mid-April, but it took some technical time before reaching its diffusion. Meta, the company that controls WhatsApp (and Facebook and Instagram) estimates that within a week the update will be made available to the more than 2 billion people around the world who use the application.
Reactions are a more practical and immediate way of indicating liking or otherwise to a message received, than sending a new message containing an emoji. The function is especially useful in group chats to reduce the amount of messages exchanged, as a reaction to those previously received by other participants in the conversation.
Speaking of group chats, WhatsApp has decided to extend the maximum number of participants, taking it from 256 to 512. Within the chats you can also share files up to 2 GB, a significant increase compared to the previous limit of 100 MB .
The expansion of the number of group chat participants has been met with some criticism and skepticism. In the past, WhatsApp had received numerous criticisms for the amount of false news that often circulates within the groups, which in some cases even led to serious news cases. Since then Meta has worked to add systems for reporting harmful messages and enriched the tools to moderate conversations, while trying to protect the privacy of users.
