[hollowcelery]

Emojis are a more granular and expressive form of the more traditional lol, rofl, haha, :), :(. They’re a useful side channel for expressing tone.

[_Algernon_]

They're really not though, because they render differently on different devices. If I send a gun emoji, it may render as a squirt gun for you for instance. Very different meanings.

[LoveMortuus]

Also the way I feel about certain emojis is different from how you feel about them and thus carry different (if slightly) meaning.

For example, I pretty much never use the clown emoji as I find it personally offensive. But I'm sure that pretty much everyone else doesn't feel the same about it.

[illiac786]

The triumph emoji is a very good example of this.

Westerners use it to signify they're pissed while it actually means triumph in Asia I believe.

[AgrMohit]

while true, many platforms like whatsapp use their own emojis so you know that it looks the same to everyone

[tjoff]

That isn't a feature though. As it means and renders completely different in different contexts and apps.

[Brian_K_White]

They're a useful way to not take someone seriously.