Last month, there were rumors that Gmail might get emoji reactions similar to most modern messengers, and it did happen.

Google has officially introduced the new feature, but only for Android smartphones and tablets for now. Reactions will appear on iOS and the web version within a few months.

The new feature has a number of limitations. First of all, it won’t be possible to use it through Apple Mail, Outlook, and others. It will also not be possible to set reactions if the email was sent to more than 20 users, if the email was encrypted, or if the sender has a special mail for replies.

The main limitation right now is that reactions will not be available for work and school accounts, so you will still have to respond to work emails.

If you set a reaction by mistake, you can cancel it within a few seconds, just like you can cancel sent emails.

Among other positive changes, Google will also start to fight spam emails more actively. The company is introducing new requirements for users who send more than 5000 emails a day:

  • Email authentication via DKIM
  • Give recipients the opportunity to unsubscribe from the newsletter in one click
  • Ensure that the newsletter is desirable for recipients

The latter should be clarified a bit. This will be a clear threshold of the percentage of spam that senders must adhere to in order to avoid clogging recipients’ inboxes with unwanted emails. According to the company, this is the first time such a practice has been applied in the industry and will lead to even less spam.