World Emoji Day: Indian users are not entirely sure what some emojis mean, shows survey

Do you know what each emoji really means? Well, it seems many Indian users are confused about some emojis and their exact usage.  Ahead of World Emoji Day on July 17, Slack paired up with DuoLingo to survey 9,400 hybrid workers across North America, Asia, and Europe to see how individuals perceive different emojis.
The survey found that emojis representing joy, laughter, sorrow, and grief are popular with most people perceiving a common meaning while those representing money, a few fruits, and vegetables appear to have different perceptions. The top three most confusing emojis were 😭, 😘 and 🍑 leaving 36 per cent of Indian respondents confused.
First up, when it came to the ‘eyes’ emoji 👀, around 46 per cent of Indian respondents said it means “I see you”. Around 27 per cent thought that it means “I am looking at this.” Another 10 per cent believed that it meant “I know” with another ten per cent believing it is used to say “whoa.” For those who don’t know, this is the side-eye emoji meant to draw attention to any kind of tension or drama. So next time, two people are arguing in front of you, and you need your friend to watch the show as well, that’s when you use this emoji.
😂 45 per cent of survey respondents agreed that this emoji meant “I am crying tears of joy,” while 32 per cent are of the opinion that it means “that is hilarious”. A small but notable 12 per cent of the survey thinks it means something is “embarrassingly funny.” The emoji is used to denote something that is really hilarious.

As it turns out, Indians seemed the be confused between the “loudly crying”(😭) and “face with tears of joy” (😂) emojis. When shown the “loudly crying” emoji, 56 per cent of the Indian respondents said they use it to show “sobbing or upset crying,” while 22 per cent believe that the same emoji means “I am crying tears of joy.”
Users might need to be a little careful about how they use the 😘 emoji as 52 per cent of respondents believe it means “I love you” romantically while only 27 per cent see it as a sign of “platonic love”. This emoji (😉) seemed to have the most different interpretations of this emoji with 44 per cent using it to say “I am kidding,” while 28 per cent of the people use it to show they are “feeling flirty” and 26 per cent believing that it “refers to an inside joke.”
💅A large 57 per cent of respondents use this emoji to show that they are “taking care of themselves,” while 18 per cent use it to communicate that “there is gossip”. This emoji is technically used to denote sass, not caring at all, confidence, etc.

Another emoji with wildly different interpretations is the skull emoji (💀) with 46 per cent of respondents saying that the skull emoji represents death, while 35 per cent said they use it to show that something is so funny that “they are dead.” This appear to be an accurate understanding of the emoji
The 💸 emoji is also often misinterpreted as 41 per cent of respondents believed that it can be used to represent an “influx of money” while 40 per cent of Indian respondents said they used it to say “hoping for money” and interestingly, 14 per cent of the respondents used it to depict a “loss of money.” The emoji typically means losing money.
People may not always use the eggplant emoji (🍆) in the ways that it is normally used, which is well not safe for work (NSFW). But 36 per cent of Indian respondents said that the eggplant is nothing more than a literal representation of the vegetable. Still around 28 per cent of Indians surveyed did say they use the eggplant to show that they are “feeling flirty”. But another 16 per cent of the respondents used the emoji to convey that they are “feeling hungry,” which does sound a little durbing.
The 💩 emoji seems to have split people into two camps with 47 per cent going for a literal interpretation where they think it represents “poop” and 29 per cent using it to say “something has gone wrong.” Around 11 per cent of the respondents believe it means “gross”.