Gmail’s emoji reactions are coming for your work inbox

Google rolled out emoji reactions to personal Gmail accounts a little over two years ago, and I had completely forgotten about it until now – probably because the option is hidden in a little smiley face icon next to the Before button. But now Google is defaulting emoji reactions to all Workspace users on February 9, reminding me of their existence (and each time, I could have responded with a “thumbs up” instead of a full message).

Selecting the discreet smiley face button displays a range of emoji that you can use in place of a written response. If your recipient is another Gmail user, they will see your reaction at the bottom of the email, as well as the emoji as a thread update in their inbox. People using other email providers – or if their emoji reactions are turned off – will receive a separate email stating that you have “reacted via Gmail”. Google introduced emoji reactions as an optional 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 came from. As Google noted, you won’t see the emoji reaction option for all emails, including if the message was sent to a group mailing 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’ll use it. Choosing an emoji might be easier than saying “Thank you,” but I’m not sure I’m ready to make my emails look more like my text messages.