Email reactions through embedded tokens

A method for providing email reactions via embedded tokens in an electronic communication system having a first computing device and a second computing device interconnected via a computer network, the method comprising:

• upon receiving, at the first computing device, an original email transmitted from the second computing device via the computer network,
• outputting, on a display of the first computing device, the original email along with an emoji interface configured to display and receive selection of one or more emojis from a user;
• and
• upon detecting selection of one of the multiple emojis by the user via the emoji interface,
• automatically generating a reply email to the received original email without manual composition by the user, the reply email having data or metadata representing an email reaction token and the selected one of the multiple emojis, wherein the email reaction token indicating that the reply email is to be rendered as the selected one of the multiple emojis on the original email, not as a new email appended to an email thread corresponding to the original email;
• and
• transmitting the automatically generated reply email to the second computing device via the computer network to be rendered at the second computing device as the selected one of the multiple emojis on the original email.

A computing device for providing email reactions via embedded tokens in an electronic communication system, the computing device comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory having instructions executable by the processor to cause the computing device to provide an email client configured to output received emails organized in corresponding email threads and to:
• receive a reply email to an original email transmitted from the computing device to another computing device;
• determine whether the received reply email includes data or metadata representing an email reaction token indicating that the received reply email is an email reaction representing a comment to the original email;
• and
• in response to determining that the received reply email includes data or metadata representing an email reaction token,
• identify, in the reply email, one or more emojis corresponding to the email reaction to the original email;
• and
• render and surface the identified one or more emojis as an emoji interface corresponding to the original email in the email client without outputting, in the email client, the received reply email as a new email to an email thread corresponding to the original email.