Your Ultimate Guide To Emoji Etiquette

Emojis seem to have taken over everyone’s texting pattern these days. Hardly do I go an entire day without using one or two emojis in my messaging. And I know you’re guilty of this too. In light of all the new emojis being released recently, I think it’s necessary for all of us to update our emoji knowledge, and learn what emojis to use and when.

By the way, did you even know that emojis originated in Japan and mean “picture letter”? Now you know – you can thank me later.

So is there the right way to use emojis? Yes please! Read on:

Attitude/emotion precedes everything.

The attitude or emotion you are conveying should come before the action or symbol. So, let’s say you are feeling happy about love (because why wouldn’t you?), you’d put the happy face first, followed by the heart. Imagine the confusion if you did it the other way around.

Be careful who you use emojis with

Unless it is your absolute bestie or someone blood-related, be careful to whom you direct a long row of hearts or send a message that replaces real English words with emojis. The little symbols are light-hearted and fun and great, but they don’t convey professionalism and/or adulthood. For example, you probably don’t want to be texting your teacher/boss and throw in an emoji for effect.

If it’s a serious situation, opt out of using an emoji.

Emojis are usually great for lightening the mood, but if you’re texting about something serious, maybe just use your words. If your friend’s grandma just died, for example, it would be beyond insensitive to send the old lady, angel, and ghost emojis.

Learn the location of your most-used emojis

If you’re like me, you have absolutely no idea where to find any of the emojis you want to use. They’re extremely ambiguously labelled, which is actually pretty rude. When you’re in the middle of a witty text conversation (especially with someone you’re crushing on), the last thing you want to do is spend too much time searching for the right emoji and slow the whole fun thing down.

Emojis should happen at the end of your thought

Think of it this way—they sort of act as punctuation. You wouldn’t place an exclamation point in the middle! of a sentence would you? Same goes for emojis. Unless of course you’re replacing a word. But if you’re saying something casual like “Will you date me?” You’d place the engagement ring emoji at the end of that sentence.