I’d welcome the chance to use something more privacy based than Signal
I just never like reactions in an app used for general messaging. They make sense on a more memey plaything like Discord, but not in a messaging app that I’m supposed to take seriously as my primary way to communicate. In fact, simple text only without any other formatting would be ideal. That’s kinda what I like about this place, with the exception of upvotes/downvotes, which could be removed for all I care.
I think images can be useful and even reactions when it’s a (large) group chat. Haven’t had anyone use them 1-1
I’ve got a group chat going in SMS with several family members, and I always cringe when I get the message “[brother] laughed at an image,” and I don’t even know what fucking image it was because I don’t have an iPhone.
Reactions just seem like something that should have never been implemented in a place where they’re not universally supported. Maybe I’d feel different with Signal, since I could simply not pay any attention to them. But if someone can’t simply have the time to say “I like that,” then why even react at all? I don’t need to know that you lived, laughed, loved at my image.
I think it’s less annoying with a large group chat to have people react to an image than 20 identical messages. I’ve seen some do group votes through that (👍 vs 👎) which seems like a good use case. Tbh I haven’t seen people use reactions much so probably partly because of that they don’t bother me.