If you already have an Android phone, you’re undoubtedly used to hearing from an iPhone user that they’ve “emphasized” your prior message. What exactly does that mean? That’s a double exclamation mark or the !! emoji, in iMessage, speak. 

There is no cross-compatibility between iMessage and the Android mobile app, although Google may be looking for ways to improve the translation of those “liked an image” reaction messages. 

9to5Google has released the latest beta version of Google’s SMS service known as Google Messages. Google’s code sleuths discovered a string of code in a preference menu that says “iOS reaction classification,” which seems to allude to reaction messages sent by an iOS-based device. It is followed by “Show iPhone reactions as emoji,” which appears to be self-explanatory. 

This appears like instead of just a line stating what the iMessage reaction was, you’ll get an emoji in reply, which is similar to how the reaction functionality works across Apple devices. 

Presently, iMessage uses a different set of reactions than Google Messages in its RCS talks. An extra line of code reads “iOS reactions mapping,” implying that Google will remap iMessage reactions to an Android-corresponding emoji. 

Because there are no teaser visuals, you’ll have to use your creativity to guess what everything will look like within the Google Messages interface. When the person on the other end of the line “likes” anything, the Android user will receive a thumbs-up???? emoji on the receiving end. 

Another new feature spotted when digging through the weeds is the option to schedule birthday reminders from within Google Messages. The recipient’s birthday will be displayed in the chat list, however, it’s uncertain whether this is pulled from their List of contacts. Once this functionality is available, you’ll have no reason to forget in the future, so get those animated birthday cards ready.