Google Confirms Emoji Reactions are Coming to Gmail in October

After a report last month that claimed Gmail will eventually get emoji reactions, Google confirmed today that the said feature will be coming to its email app in October.

Starting this month, if you have a personal Gmail account, you should start seeing a smiley face icon pop up below your messages both on mobile and desktop.

With the latest version of Gmail, you’ll be able to click on the smiley face icon and then select an emoji from the menu to send it, or you can choose one if another recipient already responded with an emoji that you like.

It’s a simple, convenient and fun way to reply to your emails, especially when you don’t have time to write more elaborate walls of text. Keep in mind though that if you use another email client, you will receive emoji reactions as separate emails.

If you have an Android phone or tablet, here is how you can add emoji reactions to your emails in Gmail:

• Open the Gmail app.
• Open a message you want to reply to.
• Below the message, tap Add emoji reaction.
• From the picker, select an emoji you want to use.
• To display more emoji, select More.
• The emoji you select appears at the bottom of the email.

In order to remove an emoji reaction, you’ll have to check your “Undo Send” settings in Gmail. By default, you have from 5 up to 30 seconds to remove an emoji reaction after you add it, but you can change the amount of time from the “Settings.”