My coworkers and I use, “ACK” to acknowledge that we have received a message without expressing anything else.
In IT?
I had to look it up, but an even older ACK equivalent would be QSL, the old radio Q-code for “message received”. “Copy” and “10-4” for CB radio would be similar. I’m pretty sure those simply confirm message received.
What would be the emoji equivalent I wonder? This is kind of how I used thumbs up in text communications. If I’m about to head home from work, and my wife asks me to pick up bread on my way home, even a QSL, ACK, 10-4 or Copy heavily implies that I’m going to have a loaf of bread with me.
From the article, I can see both sides, and I get the ambiguity. The thumbs up was after some communication about buying flax, delivery dates, and prices, concluding with a picture of the contract and a request to confirm. Since the thumbs up also implies consent to a request contained in a message, I get why the ambiguity was decided the way it was.