If you use WhatsApp, you can’t say that the app owned by Meta doesn’t let you freely express your deepest feelings. Recently, the messaging app added on iOS the ability to create your own stickers, without the need to use a third-party app. In addition, in early February it launched several features related to statuses, including reaction emoticons, a possibility that already existed on Instagram.
Now, WABetaInfo has discovered that WhatsApp wants to take these possibilities to a new level, and is currently developing a function of animated emoticons. These animated emoticons, exclusive for the moment for beta users, will appear when the user sends a single emoticon as a message, appearing a large and animated version of it.
WABetaIfo became aware of the inclusion of this type of emoticons in June 2022, when WhatsApp launched for some users of the beta version for iOS the possibility of sending the heart emoticon in animated form, which appeared beating when sent as a single message. This feature, however, was disabled soon after without any explanation.
These animated emoticons are made with Lottie, an animation file format that occupies little space and is optimized for mobile devices. With more than one billion active users worldwide, WhatsApp needs this type of animated emoticons to take up little storage and consume little RAM, so that they can be viewed and used on any device.
The function, however, comes late if we compare it with Telegram, its direct competitor. This other messaging app has long offered the possibility of sending animated emoticons and other types of reactions, including animated stickers and exclusive reactions if you subscribe to Telegram Premium.
At the moment, as we said before, these animated emoticons are exclusive to the beta version, so users who use the stable version of WhatsApp will have to wait a little longer to send dancing flamencas and dinosaurs… doing their dinosaur things.
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