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WhatsApp gets HUGE shock upgrade today – and it changes emoji forever

WHATSAPP is finally letting you react to texts with ANY emoji.

The shock update was announced today by Mark Zuckerberg, who runs Meta, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

There's a brand new WhatsApp feature rolling out right now
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There's a brand new WhatsApp feature rolling out right nowCredit: Facebook / Mark Zuckerberg

added emoji reactions earlier this year, but limited them strictly to six preselected emoji.

These were: Like, Love, Laugh, Shocked, Teary Eye, and Pray (or high five...).

Now you'll be able to access the full emoji keyboard for WhatsApp reactions.

"We're rolling out the ability to use any emoji as a reaction on WhatsApp," said in a Facebook post.

Read more on WhatsApp

The feature is being rolled out right now, so you should see it on WhatsApp very soon.

Look for a new plus icon in the reaction options to use any emoji.

Make sure you're using the latest version of WhatsApp.

If you still don't see it, don't panic: it could take a little while for it to arrive on your phone.

The feature isn't a total surprise: it's been in testing for a few weeks now.

But it's unusual for a feature to so quickly make it onto the live app.

You can test new WhatsApp features before everyone else by joining the beta.

If you want to do that, follow our guide below.

How to get WhatsApp beta

To download WhatsApp beta for your smartphone you need to go to  Play on your Android and search for WhatsApp.

Scroll down the page until you see "Become a Beta Tester".

Tap the "I'm In" button and then click "Join" to confirm.

Now all you have to do is wait for the update to the beta version of the app.

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Joining the WhatsApp beta on iOS for iPhone is more difficult, and has limited capacity.

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Follow Apple’s guide .

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