It was discovered by the folks at The Verge that reactions are displayed as intended when they were sent between iPhones running iOS 18 .1 and different Android phones. At this point, it's not exactly clear which company made this change happen: either Google or Apple.

At long last, when you send an emoji reaction from an Android device to an iPhone, it shows up like it's supposed to.

According to iOS 18.2 beta 2 code, iPhones may soon start displaying the estimated time needed to fully charge the battery.

According to The Verge, which discovered this quiet update, when an Android user sends a reaction to an iPhone via RCS message, the emoji displays inline instead of as a separate message. The same goes for when an iPhone user reacts to a message sent from an Android.

Apple has quietly improved its handling of message reactions from Android users in its latest iOS update. Previously, reactions from Android devices would appear as a separate line of text in the Messages app,

Android reactions now show up properly on iPhones, fixing a major messaging headache. Previously, Android reactions would appear as separate messages, cluttering up chats—especially in group texts. The update is part of RCS v2.

Emoji reactions now display correctly between Android and iPhone users. Emoji reactions sent from Android users no longer show up as a separate text. Apple improved cross-platform texting with RCS support in iOS 18.