whatsapp has announcement today it’s rolling out several new features that have gone through long periods of testing, including emoji reactions, larger file transfers, and larger groups.

WhatsApp has been working on Message Reactions – or “Tapbacks” in Apple Messages parlance – for some time, with evidence of their development first emerging last summer.

The feature gives users of the messaging app a quick and easy way to reply to a message (thumbs up or thumbs down in iMessage, for example) without having to type a longer text reply into the thread.

Similar to Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp users will soon see a row of emoji just above a message. For starters, only a few common reactions are available, but WhatsApp‘s parent company Meta says support for “all emojis and skin tones” will be added in the future.

WhatsApp is also rolling out a much larger 2GB cap for file transfers between users of the instant messaging platform. WhatsApp’s file-sharing capabilities have become a key feature of the service, and the app has included the ability to share media files in chats since 2017, but its 100MB file size limit hasn’t changed. during this period.

Raising the limit to 2GB should make the platform much more conducive to sharing video clips and other types of large media files, which would also be securely transferred via WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption.

Also starting today, WhatsApp is expanding the default maximum size for group chats, increasing the cap from 256 to 512 users. In his blog post announcing the new features, WhatsApp says the larger group limit is rolling out “slowly”, while message reactions and larger file size transfer limits are currently rolling out to users globally and should be available in the current version of the application.