You can now respond to messages with emoji reactions on WhatsApp

Currently some reactions that are available include the prayer, heart and thumbs up emojis. — WhatsApp

WhatsApp has announced that emoji reactions to messages are now available for users on the latest version of the app.

The company explained that reactions – unlike replying to a message directly with an emoji, text or GIF – are faster and can help to reduce overload in group chats.

Currently some reactions that are available include the prayer, heart and thumbs up emojis. The company added that it will improve the feature by adding more expressions in the future.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also announced the availability of reactions on WhatsApp through his Facebook page, saying the prayer emoji was included to "help spread thanks and appreciations". Meta is WhatsApp's parent company.

According to a report by The Verge, reactions will be rolled out to everyone in “about a week” though some users may have already have the feature.

To use reactions, hover over a message, click Menu > React to message then select one of the displayed emoji. An FAQ states that users can add only one reaction per message and they can also remove the reaction.

Apart from reactions, users can also send files within WhatsApp to up to 2GB in size at a time, an increase from the previous 100MB limit. The company recommended using WiFi to send or download larger files and a counter will be displayed to indicate the transfer duration.

The company is also slowly rolling out the ability to add up to 512 people in a group as part of an effort to expand its Communities feature, which was first announced last month.