Findings show users continued to send COVID-related emoji at an increasing rate during the pandemic
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Facemoji Keyboard today published its State of Emoji Report 2021, revealing the most popular emoji of 2021, based on global usage. Understanding that the year posed unique challenges due to COVID-19, the report reflects the continued use of COVID-related emoji — showing that the pandemic isn’t over yet, even among conversation.
Key findings from the report include:
- Facemoji users continued to increasingly send COVID-related emoji, including the Syringe, the Sneezing Face, the Hospital, the Bar of Soap, the Microbe and the Roll of Toilet Paper in conversation. Alternately, the use of the Face with Medical Mask has dropped significantly since July 2021 — reaching a 20% decrease in November, as people adjust to the new normal.
- The Face with Tears of Joy continues to rank #1 globally — though it experienced a 12% decline in use after being deemed “uncool” by Gen Z.
- The Pleading Face reached the global top 10 emoji for the first time, and the Skull was popular in predominately English-speaking countries, ranking among the top 12 in the U.S., the UK and Canada.
- The Smiling Face with Tear soared in popularity — with usage increasing 500% and cracking into the top 50 most-used emoji in just six months — earning the title as the most popular emoji from the Unicode 13.0 release.
- Home to the most romantic and fashion-forward city in the world, Paris — France continued to keep the Ring in their top 12 emoji, and Brazil was the only country to feature the Clown Face among their most popular emoji.
- The Moyai helped Facemoji users in Russia express (or not express) themselves via a “stone face.”
- Facemoji users on average sent the most emoji during the weekdays, while sending the least on Saturday and Sunday — showing that weekends are best spent offline.
- All the dating apps (Bumble, Hinge and Tinder), Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram ranked the Face with Tears of Joy #1.
“Emoji have forever changed the way in which people communicate by carving out a place both in people’s personal lives and in pop culture,” said Natalia Lin, product lead at Facemoji Keyboard. “This report signifies the global language of emoji and highlights the connections that Facemoji Keyboard makes possible every day.”
The report references fully anonymized global data, including specific insights about emoji use in seven countries — Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Russia, the UK and the U.S. The data captures the top emoji used worldwide by Facemoji Keyboard users on Android and iOS between October 1, 2020 and November 1, 2021, as well as top emoji used by country and by app — including Bumble, Facebook, Hinge, Instagram, Snapchat TikTok, Tinder, Twitter and WhatsApp.
To read the full State of Emoji Report 2021, click here.
About Facemoji Keyboard
Facemoji Keyboard (Android or iOS) is an emoji-centric keyboard app featuring speech recognition technology. It includes an emoji prediction feature, a wide variety of stickers and customizable keyboards, and the ability to turn people’s faces into animated emoji GIFs. Facemoji Keyboard’s goal is to help people around the world express themselves in new ways with fun, creative emoji.
Contacts
The Hoffman Agency
Quinn Blackwolf
408-286-2611
qblackwolf@hoffman.com
