Google Photos May Let You React to Shared Images with More Emojis

Google may offer its Photos app users a more expressive way to interact with shared images. The company is reportedly testing a revamped reaction system with emoji responses. This change appeared during an APK teardown of the app, meaning you can not experience the feature at the moment and will have to wait for the official rollout in a future update.

Emoji reactions bar spotted in Google Photos APK teardown

Google Photos lets users share photos with specific people via their contacts, email addresses, or phone numbers. Recipients can react to shared content with a heart icon. But Google may soon offer additional emoji reactions, so you can react to your friends and family’s photos in more ways.

While digging into the version 7.40.0.790840830 of the app, Android Authority discovered a new emoji reaction bar for shared photos. Once you open the photo, you will now see a React button on the bottom bar, replacing the familiar heart icon. Tapping this button will present you with a small horizontal row of five emoji reactions. This includes red heart, laughing face, heart-eyes, party popper, and clapping hands.

Note that these reactions appear as comments alongside the user’s profile picture. This new implementation not only allows you to be more expressive but also gives a social media-like experience. However, there is no guarantee that this feature will make it to the final public release. The new emoji reaction bar is currently hidden within the APK, suggesting the company is testing internally.

Apart from the emoji reactions, the publication also noticed a change in the app’s default behavior. By default, Google Photos opens to the Create tab, which Google previewed a few weeks ago. This section will basically show AI-powered photo animations and Remix illustrations. This suggests Google is nearing the rollout of the Create tab for its Photos app.