[makeitdouble]

> Since when are emoji professional?

If you're asking whether we use emoji in professional setting to convey important information, yes, we do, in spades.

Imagine you see an alert in slack about a critical system. You can type a full sentence to explain you've seen it and will investigate what's happening, or you can stick an :eyes: reaction on it and actually focus on investigating.

Same if you want someone to wait a bit because you're thinking etc.

You can always type full sentences to convey the same information, but in a professional setting conciseness and efficiency are also valuable, right ?

[qingcharles]

Agreed. It's not just about smiley faces. I use all the little caution signs, clocks, hourglasses etc in UI design all the time. Easiest way to get icons in places they are a pain to put.

[jareklupinski]

pic says thousand words

emoji says about ten

still an improvement

[jay_kyburz]

Problem is they don't say the same thing to everybody.

Do eyes emoji mean you are looking at it, or you want me to look at it, or that you have seen it? They don't really say anything.

[makeitdouble]

There's a blurriness, but it's still pretty workable. You won't ask someone to look at a problem by sticking eyes on it, that needs a lot more communication.

But you can look at an issue, see there 3 of your coworkers sticking an eyes emoji on it, and mention them when asking what they think it, get clarification if they've just seen and didn't care, are still digging deeper etc.

In a way, the imprecision is what gives the versatility, otherwise many emoji get a more limited, standardized meanings over time. Like a "done" sticker that will be enough to give a status on a request on a channel, a thumbs up on a proposition, or a green checkmark on things that explicitely needed to be checked.

[readthenotes1]

I listened to an expert on conflict resolution once say:

People get pretty good at reading body language. The problem is you never know what conversation the person is having with themselves.

[seba_dos1]

It means "you won't get any other reaction from me about it than an awkward look" ;)