WhatsApp’s new reaction feature is about to expand to include all emojis, Mark Zuckerberg has announced.
The Meta-owned messenger app gave users the ability to react to individual messages for the first time in May, although the spectrum was limited to six basic emojis: thumbs up, love heart, laughing face, shocked face, cry face and high five.
However, when the new update is rolled out, users will have access to the full emoji keyboard when reacting to individual messages, including skin tone variations.
Meta chief executive Zuckerberg announced the update in a post on Monday, and shared some of his own favourite emojis, which include robot, fries, surfer and fist pump.
The post attracted more than 60,000 likes and 12,000 comments, with a number of people excited about the news, and several others requesting further updates for WhatsApp and Facebook.
“Love this, can’t wait to see it in action,” one user wrote.
“This is a great move, well done,” another commented.
Several others made suggestions of other ways to improve the WhatsApp experience.
“Can you also work on users not being able to add people randomly on unnecessary groups?” one comment said. “Also, when I leave a group, participants shouldn’t be notified. I want to live a peaceful life without drama.”
However, WhatsApp announced in May that it was testing a way to allow users to “silently” leave a group. Currently, when you wish to leave a group chat, all members of that chat will see a notification.
The company has announced several other improvements to the messenger app, including allowing users to send files up to 2GB, a major upgrade to its current 100MB limit.
It will also increase the number of users allowed in a group chat, something it said was among its most-requested features. The new limit will allow up to 512 people to participate in a chat.
RESULTS
5pm Wathba Stallions Cup Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner Munfared, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ahmed Al Mehairbi (trainer)
5.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Sawt Assalam, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Dergham Athbah, Pat Dobbs, Mohamed Daggash
6.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Rajee, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri
7pm Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Kerless Del Roc, Fernando Jara, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner Pharoah King, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
8pm Conditions (PA) Dh85,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner Sauternes Al Maury, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
Game Of Thrones Season Seven: A Bluffers Guide
Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.
The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.
Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years.
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