In modern culture, it seems easy to guess what “heart” and especially “red heart” mean. Guess what? Love! So, the corresponding symbols are common in modern virtual world. The emoji ❤️ adopted the same meaning social media messages. The red heart emoji is a classic image to express love and romance. The read heart ❤️ and two hearts 💕 are among the popular heart emoji used on Twitter (What Every Heart Emoji Really Means by Keith Broni, Jeremy Burge, Feb 11, 2021).
What is the best emoji for love? It depends on personal preferences. Nevertheless, some believe that among the most popular are
- ❤️: Red Heart. …
- 😻: Smiling Cat with Heart Eyes. …
- 😍: Smiling Face with Heart Eyes. …
- 😘: Face Blowing a Kiss. …
- 💕: Two Hearts. …
What Emoji Are Used for Love Across Cultures?
In a survey for World Emoji Day, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Duolingo and Slack, researchers showed respondents various emoji and asked what meaning they were most likely to associate with them. The survey also investigated how emoji usage and meaning differ across countries. It was discovered that emoji can mean different things in different cultures around the world.
Chris Melore presented an interesting review of this international survey.
For example, let us look at how the “face throwing a kiss” (😘) is used. For “romantic love” or “platonic love”?
It was found that this emoji is popular among U.S. Americans, Indians, and Japanese people in different ways.
Indians prefer to use it more frequently for romantic love than for platonic love (52% vs. 27%).
Americans are also slightly more likely to use it as a sign of romantic love than of platonic love (34% vs. 26%).
However, Japanese preferences are the opposite. They tend to use the kissy face less frequently for romantic love than for platonic love (16% vs. 30%).
It is worthy of note that the “slightly smiling face” (🙂) frequently expresses “general positivity” (39%) and “feeling happy” (38%). These meanings are among the top uses for this emoji globally. However, this emoji may express less positive emotions than one may think.
Emoji are also frequently used to express sentiments of care and support. It was especially noticeable during the recent COVID-19 pandemic times. People often use the heart (❤️) and similar emoji to show love and support. Globally, differences between age groups exist in this regard. Across many cultures, younger generations mention that the emoji they send to someone are often misunderstood by the recipients. Young people of Gen Z mentioned this more frequently, at 31% among all respondents, than millennials, at 24% of respondents.