Overview

Emojis are a good tool to express an emotion or call someone’s attention by breaking up reading.

 

Empathize with users and their mental state and context when reading this message.

• When in doubt, avoid using them
• Use emojis from the approved list

If you want to add an Emoji to the approved list, reach out to the Content team.

Use Emojis for...

Special offers, general good news, new features, set up flows

Don’t over do it, but this is a good place where adding an emoji can help add excitement.

• Examples: new feature tooltips, upselling modals with special offers, “all done” empty states, success messages after completing a flow, onboarding flows/QSG

Consider whether to use Emojis for...

Neutral news, info messages, general product screens

 

It depends. Focus on transparency and being direct more than anything, but you could add an emoji if it’ll help you set the mood.

• Examples: informational in-line messages, heavily used flows, profile, settings, email subject lines, etc.

Don’t use Emojis for...

Bad news, sensitive information, payment info, error screens or states

 

Avoid emojis at all costs: they will make an important message seem informal and make us look out of touch at a moment where the user expects us to help them quickly and efficiently.

• Examples: payment page, forced upgrades, error screens or messages, payroll screens, tax information screens.

 

Best practices

Do

• Use a single emoji at a time
• Use at the end of a sentence or paragraph, replacing the period (single sentences) or after the period (multiple sentences)
• Check how they look in different systems in Emojipedia
• Put them in titles, subtitles, hint copy (positive), email copy including subject lines.

Don't

• Don’t use them to replace a word or convey a key message on their own
• Don’t use more than one emoji per sentence/paragraph
• Don’t add the same emoji multiple times, i.e. “Congratulations 👏👏👏👏”
• Don’t combine emojis
• Don't use them in the middle of a sentence/paragraph
• They break up reading
• For screen readers, they’ll make for a very inaccessible screen: the screen reader will read the emoji’s name as part of the sentence
• If the emoji can’t be shown, the blank box or cross will split the sentence in half
• Avoid emojis with a high level of detail
• Avoid emojis that show gender
• Avoid emoticons like: :), :(, u.u, etc.
• Put them in error messages, labels, buttons, menu or dropdown options, tab options

 

Emojis in lists

Don’t use emojis as list indicators.