Do Your Texts Feel Naked Without An Emoji 🤔

New research reveals that four in ten people believe a text feels naked without an emoji.

With the rapid evolution of digital communication, emojis have become a crucial part of our daily interactions, especially for the younger generations.

Emoji Usage Across Generations

The use of emojis varies significantly across different age groups.

A striking 70% of Gen Zers insist on including an emoji in their messages, while only 46% of Gen X feel the same way. This survey, conducted by Talker Research ahead of World Emoji Day on July 17, highlights the growing importance of emojis in our conversations.

According to the survey, 58% of respondents believe emojis enhance communication.

The Future of Emojis: Custom Creations

With the anticipated release of Apple’s iOS 18, users will soon be able to create custom emojis using the new "Genmoji" feature.

When asked about their interest in creating personal emojis, 38% of those surveyed expressed a desire to invent their own. Some of the most notable suggestions included a “little witch” emoji, a skull with heart eyes, and an upside-down emoji with a cowboy hat. Others requested various cocktail emojis, reflecting users' diverse needs and creativity.

Even though emoji preferences vary, only 5% of respondents admitted they don't use emojis in their daily conversations. This indicates that emojis are likely here to stay as a permanent feature of digital communication.

Most Frequently Used Emojis

Here are the top emojis people use:

• Smiling face (🙂) — 23%
• Red heart (❤️) — 21%
• Thumbs up (👍) — 18%
• Rolling on the floor laughing (🤣) — 17%
• Face with tears of joy (😂) — 14%
• Kissing face (😘) — 12%
• Smiley face with heart eyes (😍) — 12%
• Grinning face with smiling eyes (😁) — 9%
• Blushing face with hearts (🥰) — 9%
• Touching hands (prayer, high five, etc.) (🙏) — 8%

Seven New Emojis on the Way

Seven new emojis are potentially on the way, and while you might never use six of them, there's one you might use daily.

The Unicode Consortium, which decides on new emojis each year, is considering adding a “Face with Bags Under Eyes” emoji – perfect for those days when you're too exhausted to type out your feelings.

There’s already a yawning emoji, so they could decide this new one is redundant. However, if approved, it would be available on Apple and Android devices by fall or early 2025. The other six potential new emojis are a fingerprint, leafless tree, harp, shovel, splatter mark, and a “root vegetable” emoji, likely a beet or turnip. There's also an eighth candidate, the flag of Sark, a tiny island in the English Channel, though flag emojis generally see little use.

So, whether you’re crafting a heartfelt message, a light-hearted joke, or simply expressing your exhaustion, emojis are here to stay, continuing to evolve and enrich our digital conversations.

The study conducted by Talker Research, on behalf of Smirnoff

Which of these 👇 emojis do you prefer