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Emoji Reactions on Notes

Let participants react to notes with thumbs-up, plus, laugh, cry, and agree emojis.

Last updated April 2026

Emoji reactions give participants a quick way to signal agreement, empathy, or amusement on a note without writing a full comment. They are an opt-in feature on each Retrospective.

Enabling Reactions

Reactions are gated by the Allow reactions on notes option, which is off by default. Turn it on from the retro options on the Build tab before sharing the link with participants.

How Participants React

When reactions are enabled, each note has a small emoji picker. Participants can leave one of five reactions:

  • Thumbs-up - support or "I agree with this"
  • Plus - "+1, count me in"
  • Laugh - light relief
  • Cry - empathy or "I feel that"
  • Agree - explicit agreement

Reactions are available during any active sub-status (Draft, Vote, and Discuss). Clicking the same reaction again removes it.

Where Counts Show

Reaction counts appear in a small strip beneath each note, updating live for everyone. Hovering over a reaction shows who reacted (subject to the Show authors option, which controls whether display names are revealed).

Reactions work well as a lightweight Vote-style signal during the Draft sub-status. If you do not want them to compete with formal voting, leave reactions off and rely on the structured Vote sub-status instead.

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