As spotted by Android Police, it seems that a new version of WhatsApp is being rolled out to Android users at the moment. While it was not explicitly stated in its changelog, one of the changes noticed by users is that the app now has a new and reorganized emoji panel, which should hopefully make accessing these icons easier now.
The update will bump the app up to version 2.12.411 and will come with a bunch of new emojis that would have been part of the Marshmallow update, but like we said since the update will seems to be arriving at different times for users, depending on their brand, handset model, and carrier, getting access to these new emojis through WhatsApp is a quicker way to go about it.
In any case if you haven’t updated your Android version of WhatsApp yet, then be sure to head on over to the Google Play Store for the download.