Because sometimes, emoji make the best responses.
https://www.engadget.com/gmail-is-also-getting-emoji-reactions-082306008.html
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Headline coming soon: emoji reply-alls trigger e-mail server meltdowns.
They already had preset email replies, if I recall correctly; this seems like a natural extension to that. It sounds like they’re just sending special reply emails, which hopefully is easy for other email clients to parse.
I’m surprised it took this long!