Indian millennials, Gen Z find hope in emojis amid Covid

More than 80 per cent of millennials and Gen Zies in India have found hope in Covid-19 vaccination by using emojis as a medium to express themselves, a new report has said.

While the joining hands emoji emerged as the most used one as part of vaccination drive-related conversations among those aged between 18-25 and 25+ years, the emoji with laughing tears continues to enjoy the top position, the report by AI innovation start-up Bobble AI said on World Emoji Day.

The report is based upon privacy-compliant data sourced from more than 64 million devices (without any personally identifiable information) across India in the last one-year period.

The 'Emoji with Laughing Tears' has topped the chart since the last three years with over 10 million people using it on a daily basis. It emerged as the most preferred emoji in the age group of 18-25 years.

"With people working remotely, there has been a significant rise in online chatting and with that comes the rise in sharing suitable emojis to depict the emotion most effectively," said Ankit Prasad, Co-Founder and CEO, Bobble AI.

"Quite clearly, varied aspects related to the pandemic and cancellation of IPL season has dominated the minds of Millennials and Gen Zies in the last one-year period," he added.

The growing use of emojis among millennials and Gen Zies is close in line with Bobble AI's recently released study, conducted by Nielsen that analysed how this target audience is increasingly conversing in the viral language of visuals.

The study pointed out that 83 per cent of people think that using emojis, stickers and Gifs while chatting are a better way to express themselves.

"Smartphones have greatly changed the way we communicate. Since body language and verbal tone does not get translated in our text messages or e-mails, the alternate ways to convey nuanced meaning is fast becoming extremely popular," said Prasad.