If you use an Android and regularly communicate via text message with friends and family who use iPhones, you may have seen them send strange descriptive texts in response."

"laughed at the image,"

These are not human inputs. What is happening here is that Android is doing its best to translate the "reactions" of iMessage, which allows iOS users to reply to messages with emoji. However, they are doing a very poor job.

However, Google is now rolling out an update to Google Messages that makes the app a little better by deciphering emojis and displaying reactions as they were originally intended, rather than as descriptive text.

The change was first spotted by 9to5Google after decompiling the latest beta version (10.7) of Google Messages. In it, the site discovered a feature called "ios_reaction_classification" with the description "iPhone reactions are displayed as emoji."

iOS has a different set of reactions available in RCS chat, but Google appears to account for this in a way that "maps" reactions to the closest approximation available within Android.

After the initial announcement, a reader who had early access to this feature contacted the site and indicated that this mapping is indeed taking place.

According to the site, the "Like! the heart eye emoji's response to the phrase "I love you" is Google's translation of the iPhone's "love" reaction, which feels like a decent approximation. Upon tapping the reaction, Google Messages pops up the text "Translated from iPhone" (as shown in the third screenshot), emphasizing that something may be lost during translation.

Another point worth noting in this demo is that if an iPhone user changes their reaction after posting, it will be reflected in Google Messages as well: between the second and third screenshots, the heart eye reaction changes to a "laughing with delight" emoji Notice that the heart's eye reaction changes to a "laughing with delight" emoji.

This will not affect users who have migrated their messaging habits to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, etc., once this change is released from beta and made available to all Google Messages users, It will certainly make it a little easier to deal with iMessage loyalists on Android.