Having already enhanced emoji in WhatsApp with the addition of animation effects, Meta is now doing the same for emoji reactions. While not a major update, it helps to provide a balanced experience of how particular emoji work in different situations.
Of course, it is reasonable to assume that not everyone will be a fan of seeing their contacts’ responses to their messages being so demanding of their attention. And this is why Meta has made the display of animated emoji optional via a toggle in settings.
There are a few things to keep in mind here, not least of which is that fact that not all emoji are animated. While it is fair to assume that over time, animated versions of more and more of the most popular emoji will emerge, it is unlikely that we will ever see animated versions of all of them.
And, assuming your preferred emoji does have an animated version, you should note that the option to use animated emoji reaction is currently limited to the beta version of the Android version of WhatsApp – and even then, it is not being made available to all beta testers.
Writing about the new feature, WABetaInfo says:
When users tap and hold a message to react, they can see the reaction tray. After selecting an emoji, WhatsApp places it on the message. Animated reactions follow the same rules as animated emoji for messages. If the selected emoji has an animated version ready for reactions and the feature is active on the account, WhatsApp shows it in motion rather than static. WhatsApp plays the animation once before the emoji stops moving. If the animation is not available, users will see the reaction appear exactly as it always did before this update.
WhatsApp automatically enables animated reactions by default. This means that users do not need to enable a specific setting to use them. Users can react to a message with one of the emoji that has an animated version. The feature is available if users can see the animation after reaction to a message. If the emoji appears static, the feature is not available on the account yet. Since WhatsApp is rolling out the feature gradually, this experience may vary from one user to another even on the same build.
If this is something that you are not a fan of, just head over to settings and flip the appropriate toggle to disable animated emoji reactions.