Something strange happened during whatsapp video call that a thumbs up emoji showed up inside a blue circle on my screen while on the video call is that something new?

Has anyone else figured out any hand gestures so far I’ve got a piece sign sets off balloons a thumbs up and thumbs down sets of a corresponding image in a text box and doing the love heart symbol with two hands sets off hearts from the middle of the hands.

I’ve done a quick google and can’t see anything, it only works for me with an iPhone and iOS 17 beta but not for my girlfriend who’s on an old Samsung android thing.

So, over the past month or so I’ve noticed something really weird happen. It only happens when i call a certain person, calling them Jessica here. Only when i call Jessica does my phone randomly once in a blue moon show a thumbs down while on Videocall. Idk how to explain it but it’s like a thought bubble with a thumbs down. Today for the first time it showed a thumbs up. It doesn’t happen when i Videocall anyone else but also, i Videocall Jessica the most. Has this happened to anyone else????? If you don’t understand i do have screenshots that i can add to help.

Edit: i use an iPhone with the latest version of ios and WhatsApp. The same has also occurred when I’ve called Jessica from my OnePlus device.

Hey everyone,

On my iPhone 17 Pro (IOS 26.3), I can’t get the hand heart gesture (or any other reaction effects like hearts popping up) to work during WhatsApp video calls. I’ve tried making the heart shape with both hands clearly in view, but nothing happens.

It works perfectly fine in FaceTime on the same phone. Also, on my old iPhone 14 (iOS 18), the heart gesture showed up in WhatsApp video calls no problem.

I thought maybe it was because I hadn’t enabled Apple Intelligence at first, so I turned that on today — still the same issue.

Is this happening to anyone else with an iPhone 17 Pro? Or is there some setting I’m missing !