If you regularly have meetings in Google Meet, you may already know about the hand-raising tool for when you want to speak. The company behind the app wanted to take it a step further, ensuring you can respond to the discussion without being disruptive. To that end, you can finally react with emojis during the video call.
Should you wish to do so, it’s easy to apply. When you’re in Google Meet, just look at the bottom row of emojis. The ones available at this point are Sparkling Heart, Party Popper, Face with Tears of Joy, Thumbs Up, Astonished Face, Clapping Hands, Crying Face, Thinking Face, and Thumbs Down. I don’t know about you, but I really hope no one reacts to what I’m saying with that last one.
Here’s a short statement from Google on the new emojis:
“We hope these features make it easier for you, your colleagues, and stakeholders to stay better connected and engaged, whether they’re working from home, the office, or anywhere in between.”
Time will tell if we’ll see more of a selection in the future. You can also change the skin tone of the emoji across the boards for Google Meet on the right side. Once selected, it applies to all the emojis.
As for not being a distraction, I seriously have my doubts. Since it’s a new feature, someone in the meeting is going to be trigger-happy and look for every opportunity to use each emoji. Also, the attention seekers in the audience won’t be happy unless everyone in the Google Meet claps for a standing ovation.
As a point of interest, did you know that Shigetaka Kurita was the first one to make emojis? He made a collection of about 180 emojis for a Japanese web platform for mobile devices at the time. To think, we’re still using them to this day, just upgraded.
