Google Messages now translates iMessage reactions as emojis

If you have a friend in group chats using an iPhone while you and others are on Android’s Google Messages, chances are the iMessage user may have been sending reactions to messages. The problem is that Messages interprets it as text so you’ll get messages like “liked an image” or “emphasized we’re on our way”. And if they react to a lot of messages, it gets pretty crowded and cluttered in that group chat. Now, Google Messages is translating these reactions into emojis.

9 to 5 Google initially shared that this new translation of iMessage emojis is just an APK Insight. But since their initial report, it looks like this has started rolling out to some users of the beta version to Google Messages, version 10.7. Instead of the text explanation of the reaction from iMessage, Google is able to interpret these reactions and then turn them into emojis. They remapped the reactions and matched them with what is available in RCS.

While there may not be exact matches, most of them are close enough. For example, the love reaction is interpreted with the heart eyes emoji which is pretty understandable whether as a reaction or an emoji. More importantly, the previous fallback messages will not appear in your message history so it should remain uncluttered. When you tap on the emoji, Google will tell you that it was “Translated from iPhone.”

Another thing that Google is working on for its Messages app is a Birthday Reminder feature. Your conversation list will show you that it’s someone’s birthday, based of course on the Google Contacts listing. If you’re chatting with the birthday boy or girl, you’ll see a banner, what looks like a bouncing birthday cake, to remind you to greet that person and maybe send that virtual cake to them.

For now, what Google is rolling out to users is changing iMessage reactions to emojis. You can check if it’s available for you already or just wait until the rollout finishes.