Use of positive emojis in communication declines amid coronavirus pandemic

A sentiment analysis performed by emojipedia finds that positive emoji use is on the decrease, while the total number of emojis sent in our communications continues to rise.

Analyzing 68 million unique tweets, a number of patterns have emerged which go some way toward reflecting the global mood and how we communicate in the ''new normal'' of 2020.

Also read: 2021: No new emojis to be launched due to coronavirus pandemic

Charted below are these three groups of smileys, shown as a percentage of all individual emoji instances during four selected time frames between August 2018 and April 2020.

The emoji sentiment on Twitter reveals that the relative use of positive emojis is down, while negative emojis have seen a slight increase.

Between August 2019 and April 2020 the percentage of all individual positive smiley instances decreased from 29.92 per cent to 28.12 per cent, a relative decrease of 5.63 per cent.

What this data also shows is that positive expressions remain the most popular type of smiley. These never dropped below 28 per cent of all emoji instances throughout the period measured.

While it's impossible to determine all reasons behind any sentiment shift, this change could be a result of fewer positive tweets due to the current global pandemic, especially as the largest relative drop was seen in the most recent period.