Google Messages requires a setting to turn off reaction effects

I like Google’s particular brand of whimsy, but the Messages app should add an in-app setting to turn off animations and other expressive effects.

Google’s support article describes a system/Android level setting called “Turn off animation reactions,” which applies to everything on your phone.

1. Open Settings on your device App.
2. Select Accessibility > Color and Motion.
3. [アニメーションの削除]Turn on.

This is too extreme for most people who would instead want a setting within Google Messages. With the advent of reaction effects, advanced setting strategies are now required. For example, reacting to a message with 👍 results in “three animated hands dancing around the message her bubble”. Similar animations can be obtained with ❤️ 😂 😮 😡 👎 💩 🎉 😠 😢.

In this day and age, it’s very common to immediately reply to a message with a thumbs up. It happens so often that the reaction effects for it become boring. The fact that the animation is a bit too long doesn’t help.

A counterexample to a good and moderately executed effect is animated emojis. The fact that the motion occurs in a small area is a relief, but the sheer number of options helps.

If you think reaction effects are too much/too long, screen effects take it to a whole other level. I feel that full screen takeover is annoying. It’s fun the first few times, but it can actually go too far into the wacky direction.

This was before Google realized that only two of the effects were widely available and were heralded as “15+” at launch.

• “I love you”: Hearts overflow and birds fly across the screen.
• “Sounds good”: Various thumb ups from the left and right edges of the screen

Perhaps there’s a clever way to limit how often each conversation occurs per day, but until then it requires configuration. One of the ideas that comes to mind is to let the sender decide whether to add effects when sending a message. This is similar to Voice Moods, where you choose whether to add a mood after recording your message.

(Speaking of its expressive features, I would like to point out again that Google has not yet rolled out its Voice Recorder redesign to the beta channel. Still, for some reason, its improvements that do not include Voice Moods , already available on the stable channel) I checked it on several phones. )