Summary

  • WhatsApp adds the Party Popper emoji (🎉) to its default reaction list, complete with an animated effect, bringing holiday cheer to conversations.
  • A new half-screen bottom sheet replaces the full-screen gallery interface, allowing users to easily browse images while maintaining context within their chat.
  • The new gallery interface includes a convenient album switcher and a toggle for selecting HD or standard image quality.



WhatsApp is slightly tweaking its default emoji reaction list just in time for Christmas and New Year’s festivities. For reference, WhatsApp’s default emoji reaction list includes, in order, 👍, ❤️, 😂, 😮, 😢, and🙏. As part of a new update, WhatsApp has added the party popper emoji (🎉) to the seventh spot on the list, complete with an accompanying animation.

This comes soon after the messaging giant was found to be testing out personalized emoji reaction lists.

WhatsApp

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For what it’s worth, the addition of the party popper emoji to the seventh spot would have been redundant if personalized reaction emoji lists would have already rolled out. But alas, the latter is still in beta, so the temporary festive addition does make sense in the meanwhile.


As highlighted by WABetaInfo, the inclusion of the Party Popper emoji as the seventh default reaction is currently rolling out on both Android and iOS. I’m seeing the emoji make the list on WhatsApp version 2.24.25.77 on Android and on version 24.25.89 on iOS.

Screenshots of the party popper emoji taking up the 7th spot on WhatsApp's default emoji reaction list.

Elsewhere, on the same WhatsApp version, we’re also seeing a revamped gallery attachment screen. The previous full-screen image attachment UI has seemingly been replaced with a half-screen bottom sheet — essentially allowing users to keep an eye on their chat while they browse their device’s gallery to find the perfect attachment (paperclip icon → Gallery).

The half-screen sheet can be pulled up into a full-screen layout, complete with the addition of a convenient album switcher at the top that can be toggled to highlight ‘Recents,’ ‘Camera,’ ‘Videos,’ WhatsApp,’ and more, as seen in the screenshots below.


Screenshots of WhatsApp's new gallery attachment UI.

It’s worth noting that the sheet always defaults to ‘Recents.’ The same sheet also sports a convenient quality switcher, letting you preset whether the image you’re about to attach is sent in HD or default quality. We’re seeing the new attachment sheet UI across Android and iOS.