Email Reactions are a thing. Let’s talk about them!

You can now thumbs up an email like you would a chat. But should you?

For a small provision, this feels significant. It brings a modern convenience to an already established domain. And it might be causing a quiet stir.

I haven’t fully embraced email reactions. I’m sure there’s a place for it; I’m still trying to find it. As a millennial, I didn’t make the letter-writing cut-off. I joined the workforce when email communication was normal. And while I’ve taken my fair share of liberties to bend the rules, I’ve always associated emailing with a certain level of etiquette and professionalism.

Does this mean email can’t be fun and casual? Hardly! Emojis show how email communication has evolved with the times to accommodate new forms of expression. I wrote about emojis in a previous post and I’m increasingly using them to add a touch of lightness to my emails.

But email reactions – despite being emojis themselves – have not quite landed for me. Here’s why I think that is.

React versus Respond

I’ve always viewed email as a tool for considered communication, even if it’s casual. Email is a platform where words are the primary means of expression. Everything else (pictures, formatting, emojis and more) enhances the meaning of words; accentuating here and emphasising there. As such, there’s a level of forethought that goes into writing, and receiving emails. This is integral to the email experience. 

Email reactions upend this idea, suggesting we can react to emails rather than respond to them with words. This takes some getting used to. I admit, I’ll need to unlearn some things to fully embrace this opportunity.

I’m happy to share that I’ve started playing around with email reactions. At the moment, I use email reactions to acknowledge messages, mainly in settings where I have a working relationship with the other person. This is typically within my immediate team and colleagues I collaborate with. 

I also limit my reactions to positive gestures: a thumbs up for acknowledgement, a smile for humour and so on. I stay clear of negative reactions like a frown or a surprised look. If I need to differ, I want to use words because they allow for much more clarity.

In these instances, I want to respond to an email, and not react to it.

Wider use

I asked a contact how they use this new feature and they were quite welcoming of it.

.. I like it for responding to group emails. The farewell or congratulation emails that go to distribution lists. 

Considered and professional.

Next, I turned to a Reddit thread for a snapshot of online sentiment. Those familiar will know Reddit for its colourful expression at the very least. There was no shortage of commentary so I used Google’s Gemini to sum it up.

Some people find the feature useful and time-saving. Others find it unprofessional and confusing. Many people are also frustrated with Microsoft’s unpredictable rollout of new features.

Mixed feelings in short. 

This innovation probably has a critical mass of willing users. But it may have another significant challenge in the way of unlocking its full potential: It’s not available to everyone. 

For example, at the time of writing this, email reactions come standard with all Gmail accounts but Microsoft Outlook users need a qualifying subscription to access it. This means that Outlook users on the free tier cannot react to emails they receive from anyone, including Gmail users.

For a feature like this to become mainstream, I believe it needs to be available to everyone at no additional cost. Why? Because we already have free, personal email accounts, and there’s no business case for email reactions as a paid add-on. I hope Microsoft and other providers will follow Google’s lead in this regard.

Looking ahead

For better or worse, email reactions are here to stay. The innovation adds a layer of richness to email communication. There’s nothing wrong with that. 

See Also

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This feels like an inflexion point in how we relate to email, not unlike the transition away from physical letters many moons ago. There’s bound to be some tension and turbulence as different elements converge to shape how we express ourselves online, and as nostalgia contends with novelty. 

I’m sure we’ll find a way to forge ahead – we always do. To secure my full buy-in, however, I’d propose that a few reactions be added to what looks like a limited set of options in Outlook:

💪

😎

🎶

🍾 and

🙌

These are just some of my favourites, but what’s stopping us from making the full emoji list available for selection? The more the merrier!

I wonder what this conversation would look like for the next generation. Perhaps we’d have an AI agent read the email out loud (or a summary of it), and we’d be debating whether to delegate a response to AI agents or whether that option would be unethical given the environmental cost of AI.

Let’s see!