WhatsApp for Android Beta Brings Android 7.1 Emojis to Everyone

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has introduced the new Unicode 9.0 emojis in the beta version of its Android app with the release of the WhatsApp version 2.17.44. Both the mobile operating systems iOS and Android last year received the fresh set of emojis, and WhatsApp wants to bring them for all its Android app users, no matter what version of Android your device is running. For now, the emojis are available inside the WhatsApp beta for Android app only, and will release to the stable channel later.

The fresh set of emojis part of Unicode 9.0 include different emoticons and objects, such as a clown, an avocado, a girl and a boy doing a facepalm and a shrug, a butterfly, bacon, a nauseated face, a new dancing boy, a whiskey glass, along with new profession emojis among others. To recall, Apple introduced the Unicode 9.0 emojis as part of iOS 10.2, while Google released them in the Android Nougat 7.1 update.

As per the latest data, mere 0.1 percent of the active Android devices run Android Nougat, which means almost nobody is using them in the Android world. With this update, WhatsApp is letting its users experience the new set of emojis. If you want to download the beta version of WhatsApp, head to Google Play store on your device, go to app's listing and scroll down to 'Become a beta tester' part. After you enter the beta testing mode, you'll be able to download the WhatsApp beta app in a few minutes.

WhatsApp recently enabled full support for Android Nougat notifications where it now shows all unread messages from a single conversation and not just the latest message, like it had earlier. It is also testing a feature to let users edit, revoke messages after sending them, along with another feature that will let you know when your WhatsApp friend changes their status.