What Your Slack Emoji Culture Says About Your Team

Our Company's Most Used Emoji

I pulled Slack analytics for the past 3 months. The most-used emoji was :eyes:. Second place :thumbsup:, third :pray:. No surprise there. But fourth place was unexpected: a custom emoji that just says "ok" in Korean text. (Someone had literally turned the Korean abbreviation for "okay" into a tiny image and uploaded it as a custom emoji.)

Looking at these patterns, I realized something interesting. Emoji usage patterns reflect team culture with surprising accuracy.

Why :eyes: Is Number One

:eyes: means "I saw this." But more precisely, it means "I read it but I'm not sure how to respond" or "I'm interested but too busy right now." The fact that :eyes: is our top emoji means there are a lot of people who want to acknowledge messages but don't have time for a text reply.

I'm honestly not sure if this is a healthy culture. Replacing "acknowledged" with a single emoji is efficient, sure. But from the sender's perspective, seeing nothing but :eyes: on your message sometimes feels like "okay, so now what?" (Especially when you ask for opinions and get 3 :eyes: reactions and zero actual responses.)

What Custom Emojis Reveal

Our Slack has 347 custom emojis. Most were created by the design team. The dev team made practical ones like :shipit:, :lgtm:, :hotfix:. The design team made emotional ones, things like :going-home:, :monday-blues:, :good-job:.

Whoever creates the most custom emojis has outsized influence on the culture. Last year, the design team lead created a :nice-work: emoji, and now adding it after deployments has become a team ritual. One emoji created a piece of team culture.

The :pray: Overuse Problem

:pray: being third is a bit bittersweet. This emoji typically accompanies requests. "Could you review this PR please :pray:" style. High :pray: usage means there are a lot of asks, and it also means people prefer softening requests with emoji rather than being direct.

At my previous company, people used :point_right: instead of :pray:. "Handle this :point_right:" Same request, different vibe. :pray: says "sorry to bother you, but could you maybe..." while :point_right: says "this is your task." Which one is healthier? I honestly don't know.

When Emoji Reactions Replace Actual Responses

Here's the real problem. You share an important decision and get only emoji reactions. No text responses. Five :thumbsup: reactions. Does that mean everyone agrees? Or just that they saw it?

We tried to solve this with a team rule: for messages requiring decisions, use thread replies instead of :thumbsup:. Even just one sentence of text. The first two weeks went well. Now... honestly, we're back to :thumbsup: reactions. (I made the rule and I'm not even following it.)

Emojis Are Just a Mirror

Slack emoji culture directly reflects how a team communicates. Lots of :eyes: means a quiet team. Lots of custom emojis means a playful team. Lots of :pray: means a team trying to stay egalitarian. Our team checks all three boxes, and whether that's good or bad is something I still haven't figured out.