In keeping with using emojis to appear more friendly, the survey highlighted the tears of joy emoji as the dominate favorite, followed by the red heart and face blowing a kiss among survey respondents. Most said they use emojis to lighten the mood — at around 93% — followed closely by “showing support” at 91%.While the report highlights the positivity centered around emojis, most of the respondents — 65% — preferred using emojis to express emotions rather than making a phone call. Those numbers were even higher among members of Generation Z at 83%.
Emoji users agreed that the emojis could help communicate across language barriers and instantly share thoughts — but could be better. Around 78% said emojis should strive for more inclusivity, a major theme among the new emojis heading to iOS and Android with symbols for disabilities including hearing aids, seeing-eye dogs, and prosthetics.
While many emojis allow for customizing options like skin color, in the survey, 73% said they wanted more customization options related to appearance and personal identity. The newest emojis also include a handful of gender-neutral characters.
The survey also looked at the way emojis impact businesses — according to the survey, 44% are more likely to purchase a product if it’s advertised with an emoji, while more than half are more likely to open that mass email if there’s an emoji in the subject line.
The full 2019 Emoji Trend report is available online from Adobe.
