This is a brief guide to how I use Emoji and GIF and a few contextual notes about what Emoji I use, when I use them and what they mean to me.

Principles

• Unambiguous - use emoji and GIFs that may often have multiple meanings
• Enhancement - only use Emoji as an enhancement to an existing message

Norms

• GIF - I generally choose Adventure Time, Bluey or Muppets / non-human cartoon gifs

When I use Emoji

• reacting to a message in Slack or Discord
• enhancing an existing message for Twitter
• responding to a text where reactions are limited but words aren’t necessary

How I Use Emoji

My most used public messaging Emoji:

• 🚀 - when I’m excited about something that’s happening (shipping software or forward movement in work/side projects)
• ✨ - when I’m in awe of something someone has done or grateful for something that’s happened/happening
• 🌱 - when someone (including myself) has a moment of self reflection or personal growth

My most used private (Slack/Messages) Emoji:

• ✅ - I have done something about this
• 👀 - I am looking into this (also, acknowledgement that I’ve seen something)
• 🦺 - I believe this is safe to try

My most used Emoji for Pull Request (code) reviews:

• ℹ️ - I am giving you context for this change
• ❓ / ❔ - I am asking an exploratory question based on my experience
• 📌 - I’m requesting this be changed
• ‼️ - I believe this could be problematic, can we discuss

Other Emoji I use:

• 🎉 - when I’m excited about something personal
• 💙 - when I’ve had a good moment with a peer
• 💜 - when someone has noticed a moment of personal growth for me

Emoji I try to avoid:

• most people faces and hand symbols
• 🔥 - ambiguous