FYI, Your Favorite Emoji Might Look Horrifying to Android Users
A text message thread isn't a fun one without the use of emoji. The expressive faces can be used to paint the perfect picture, but they can also be complicated and easily change the dynamic of a conversation.
While you may think your fluidity in emoji language might indicate your level of text message comfort between you and a friend, a recent study from GroupLens suggests that emoji might actually be hurting the way you communicate. See, emoji appear differently on various platforms. If you're an Apple device user and you include emoji in your messages to an Android user or in a tweet, your face is likely to vary across platforms. But according to the study, this difference in appearance can be perceived differently by person and can change the entire context of your intended message.
A group of subjects was asked to rate a variety of popular emoji by sentiment scaling from strongly negative (-5) to strongly positive (5). Based on results in a chart, it was found that the most misinterpreted emoji were probably some of the most frequently used: the loudly crying face, grinning face with smiling eyes, and smiling face with tightly closed eyes. All three emoji have striking differences in appearance across devices, and their rankings show that their meanings are also interpreted differently.
The researchers describe this theory more in the text:
When Abby sends an emoji, she intends a particular meaning. When Bill views the emoji, he interprets what he thinks it means, or develops his own construal. If Bill's interpretation differs from Abby's intended meaning, then Bill misconstrued Abby's communication. Our results suggest that people often interpret emoji in diverse fashions, potentially leading to situations like that of Abby and Bill. With discrepancy between the sender's and receiver's interpretation the sender's intended meaning is not commonly understood by both of them, so the communication suffers.
So next time you attach a loudly crying face in your message to express hysterically laughing, or a grinning face with smiling eyes to convey something positive, you may want to consider going with a different emoji to make sure your friends get the (right!) message. Scroll through to see how some of your favorite faces translate.
Grinning Face With Smiling Eyes, Sleeping Face, Winking Face
Smiling Face With Smiling Eyes, Loudly Crying Face, Smiling Face With Heart Eyes