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Design system

Emoji Guide

Use these guidelines to help make decisions about emojis in product and marketing contexts. (Newsroom follows its own style guide.)

When to use

If you're using emojis, they should ideally meet all the following criteria:

  • Used as an enhancement (but not in place of words)
  • Used sparingly
  • Used when the overall tone of the experience is light

Emojis chosen should also be light in tone (i.e. confetti is OK; tombstones for a Halloween email, not so much)

  • Used when there's no chance of the emojis appearing juxtaposed with grim, serious articles

For example, Microsoft doesn't have flag emojis. Check to make sure your emojis convey what you're intending.

How to use

If you use emojis:

  • Use widely recognized emojis that translate well across devices.

For example, Microsoft doesn't have flag emojis. Check to make sure your emojis convey what you're intending.

  • Make sure the emoji has enough contrast for both light and dark modes.
  • Place them at the beginning or end of sentences, not in the middle.
  • Use within text (as opposed to an image or any other format).
This is required by Apple's guidelines.
  • Make sure related copy stands on its own — emojis should be able to be deleted without affecting the meaning.

When to avoid

Avoid using emojis:

  • To represent our core product offerings.

If we need art to represent core product offerings, we should evaluate if the use case warrants creating custom art.

  • If there's any chance of the emojis appearing juxtaposed with grim, serious stories.
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