Slack Technologies, Inc.’s rapidly growing enterprise messaging platform received an upgrade of sorts this week with a new feature that allows users to like posts from others by using one of Slack’s 722 emoji.

Described by Slack as “722 ways to show I got your message” the new feature is an add-on to a previous option that allow users to like other messages by hitting a star button, in as it might be a suggested, a far more bright, colorful, and at times in even interesting ways.

In discussing likes on Slack, the company explained that when “we argued about what symbol we would use — a heart, a star, a thumbs-up, a check-mark. But then we realized that all these were already in the default emoji set… along with the dancers, the sparkles, the monkeys, the smiling, crying, grimacing faces, and the poop.”

“Emoji reactions were born.”

Multiple features

Although primarily pitched as reactions, the new emoji set can also be used in more creative ways, such as the addition of +1’s to a message on the service, through to even polls; in this picture from Slack a user can themselves add the emoji’s, and have people click on either one to share their opinion

Other suggested uses include the ability to great new team members, along with giving applause, and well as the ability to give someone a ticket of approval.

Accompanying the new feature is a new enhanced emoji menu, along with an updated the Recent Mentions tab in the top right corner of the service that now includes reactions, so a user can review any new reactions added to things they’ve posted all over Slack, in one place.

Nice touch

Although it’s not a groundbreaking move from Slack, it is a nice touch to a platform that is often argued by its critics to be a glorified version of IRC.

Whether it helps justifies its extreme Unicorn valuation though is another matter; as we wrote back in April Slack’s last round was $160 million Series E on a $2.8 billion valuation, a remarkable number for a relatively new company that launched in its second, and current incarnation in February 2014.

The new features are available on Slack now, and to add emoji reactions click the edit cog next to the message you wish to add an emoji to, then select the emoji option.