No, it’s just the “insipid” Like button. Period. No different than “liking” a post on social media (inclduing message boards that, unlike the SDMB, allow such things), except that your phone has a verbose way of showing you when something has been “Liked.”
I have a five year old Moto something Play and those “reactions” appear under every text I receive, no holding down buttons at all. I can just choose one. It works with both Facebook Messenger and whatever texting app came with the phone. What’s the point of copying the entire text back to the person that sent it?
Ah, grasshopper, you have plumbed the depths of my inquiring mind and revealed my reason for starting this thread in the first place.
Apple and Android DO NOT work well together when it comes to text messages. Apple has made sure that this is so. So much so that Apple phones will distinguish between a text message from another iPhone and and Android phone. It is more than cosmetic. Apple intentionally makes the results worse when texting between the two. Kidjanot. I know people here do not like long videos but this 20 minute one kinda spells it all out and I think it is worth a watch and directly answers the OP (indeed, I think everyone should see this video since we are all affected by it):
I thought that was your point, just hoping to highlight it a bit. 
I’m totally not getting this. May as well go back to using email where every reply email just gets attached to the original.
It’s not done by the person sending the text, it’s a problem between Apple and Android software.
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It’s no different from the Like button except that it’s different. Got it.
Regardless of which system is responsible, my point stands.
I’m trying it out now. I don’t text that much, a few per week, so I’m not sure I’ll see that much difference, but I appreciate finding out about stuff like this.
You can customize the colors and notification sounds for contacts. I have different tones for everyone who texts me regularly. Different from their phone ringtones.
It’s not different than the Like button. It just appears as a small thumbs up on the side of the comment or image to anyone using an iPhone. Or thumbs down, exclamation point, “ha” or a couple other reactions.
I think the “problem” with third party texting apps is both the sender and the receiver need to be using the same app to get all of that app’s benefits.
Trying to get all of the people you want to text to switch to a new app may be difficult.
I can send and receive texts with Textra to/from everyone. It’s not like WhatsApp or the old BlackBerry Messenger.
To be fair, it has some usefulness (at least compared to Facebook likes). The main one is as a generic “ack”. Text messages don’t have a confirmation of receipt (unless you enable it in the iOS world, I’m not sure if Android, etc have something similar). A quick “Like” to a text at least confirms receipt. In other comms settings it’s not unlike an “Ack/Wilco” type of response. And with one easy click.
Ack?
Sure…but the features are nerfed.
See the video I posted above. I really think it will answer a lot of your questions. It is well produced too. It is not unpleasant to watch.
Acknowledge!
What the guy describes in the video does not match my experience.
I have a BlackBerry Key2 which runs on Android (the BB operating system of old having gone belly-up). All I’ve ever had were BBs.
With Textra (not the default messaging app) I can send and receive messages of any length with pictures, sound files, and perfectly fine videos. I assume most of my friends are on iPhones.
I can’t relate to the blue/green bubble thing, as I customize the colors for different contacts. He refers to group texts being hard to follow. I’m in an ongoing group text chat with six other women. On my phone each person has her own color, plus her photo shows up next to her message bubble, so there’s not one bit of confusion. As I mentioned, each contact that I routinely hear from has their own notification sound (different from their own phone call ringtone). Textra is very functional.
Am I not understanding something?
Well…BlackBerry is officially defunct (see article linked below).
The video above describes a war between iPhone and Android. BlackBerry is not something they consider.
In the video they note various messaging protocols like SMS and MMS. In order to receive a message from another phone it needs to be able to understand one of these protocols. RCS being the most recent (which iPhone does not support except in the most basic fashion…Android embraces it).
Apple decided to do their own thing that only works on iPhones. This is very deliberate. It will receive basic text messages from non-iPhones but otherwise nerfs most other cool features like group chats and videos and so on.
I am willing to bet it absolutely does not work with Blackberry. So, as a BlackBerry user, you can get basic text messages and not a whole lot else.
I hate to say it but it is probably time you to get a new cell phone.
Missed the edit:
If you do get a new cell phone be SURE the staff is able to move all of your contacts and text messages over.
In my experience the staff at cell phone stores are not great and kinda lazy about this stuff but there is usually at least one person who knows their shit. Be sure they get that done for you.
You can also keep your current phone number.
Discuss with them apps you like. There is probably (probably) something similar on whatever new phone you buy.
Ah geez…my bad. Seems you have a very nice phone. I saw BlackBerry and jumped to a conclusion I should not have.
You do not need a new phone.
I think what is happening is a person with an iPhone replying to you with a quick response button and that is what it looks like on your phone.
The video I linked is spot-on about this if not explicit.
It is iPhone doing its iPhone thing and not playing nice with Android. Apple does this on purpose.
The only way around it is for everyone you text to move to a third-party messaging app you all use. Or you get an iPhone or they all get Android phones.
None of which is likely.