Collaboration is a huge part of Google Docs, letting multiple users chip in edits, comments and more. Now, you can include not just text in your comments but emoji reactions, much as you can in messages or on social media. "The new emoji reactions feature provides a less formal alternative to comments to express your opinions about document content," Google said in a blog post announcing the feature.
The new option appears when you highlight text in a document while in "editing" mode. From there, you'll see a new "add reaction" icon smiley face icon that lets you place emojis in the editing comments section. Google notes that emojis used will be shared with Google chat, "so any preferences set in one app will be reflected in the other." Both apps can also be used to update emoji preferences via the picker.
Google recently feted the 15th anniversary of Docs (along with Sheets). It has gradually boosted the feature set over that time, with the last update allowing you to draft emails in Docs and then send them using Gmail.
Emoji reactions on a Google Doc could be an easy way to add feedback, but then again they may not fly in some business environments. Either way, the feature can't be disabled by the user and "there is no Admin control for the feature," according to Google. The feature started officially rolling out yesterday, but it may take some time to appear depending on your domain type and region.