- Google is working on bringing emoji reactions to the Wear OS version of the Messages app.
- A new “Mark as read” button is also expected for Wear OS notifications, mirroring the Android phone experience.
Google Messages is the primary texting app on Android, and Google keeps working to improve the core experience. This extends to both the experience on Android phones and the secondary experience on connected devices like Wear OS smartwatches. We’ve now spotted Google working on bringing the ability to react with emojis and mark messages as read from the notification, straight from your Wear OS smartwatch.
The Google Messages app on Android phones allows users to react with Emojis and Photomojis, but the functionality doesn’t extend to the Wear OS app. On Wear OS smartwatches, users can see all emoji reactions in messages, but they cannot react to messages themselves. This could soon change, as we’ve spotted a new MessageReactionsActivity on the Wear OS version of Google Messages: