---
title: "Reacting to a chat message"
description: "Add an emoji reaction to a chat message to respond without typing a reply. Hover over the message, click the Reaction (smiley) button and pick an emoji."
category: communication
section: chat-essentials
type: Tutorial
lastUpdated: 2026-08-26
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/communication/react-to-a-chat-message
---

# Reacting to a chat message


You can react to a chat message with an emoji instead of typing a reply. Hover over the message, click the **Reaction** button (the smiley icon) and pick an emoji. Your reaction appears on the message, and everyone in the conversation can see who reacted and with which emoji.

## How do I add a reaction?

1. In the **Chat** app, hover over the message you want to react to. An action bar appears beside it.
2. Click the **Reaction** button, marked with a smiley icon.
3. Pick one of the seven quick reactions: thumbs up, heart, laughing, party, astonished, crying or clapping.

![A chat message hovered, with the action bar (Reaction, Reply, More) visible and the quick-reaction popover open, showing the seven quick reactions (thumbs up, heart, laughing, party, astonished, crying, clapping) and the + button](/images/communication/react-to-a-chat-message/01-quick-reaction-popover.png)

For any other emoji, click the **+** button at the end of the quick-reaction row. The full emoji picker opens, showing your most recently used emojis first, with a search field to find a specific emoji.

![The full emoji picker open on a chat message after clicking the + button, showing the category tabs, the emoji grid and the search field](/images/communication/react-to-a-chat-message/02-full-emoji-picker.png)

## How do I change or remove my reaction?

You can add one reaction per message. To change it, open the reaction picker again and pick a different emoji: it replaces your current one. To remove it, open the picker and click your current emoji.

## How do I see who reacted to a message?

The most used reactions and their total count are displayed at the bottom corner of the message. Click them to open the list of everyone who reacted, each shown with the emoji they chose. This works in one-to-one conversations and chat rooms alike.

## What's Next?

- [Formatting chat messages](/en/communication/formatting-messages)
- [Marking a chat message as unread](/en/communication/mark-a-chat-message-as-unread)
- [Seeing who read a chat message in a room](/en/communication/see-who-read-a-chat-message-in-a-room)
- [Using Chat](/en/communication/chatting-with-users)