InVision is celebrating World Emoji Day by releasing the full native emoji pack for Freehand 🎉 Now you can use emojis to share reactions and express your humor, personality, tone, and voice, with your team.
We know how much those tiny icons matter when working on remote and hybrid teams, especially since less in-person interaction means less opportunity to read body language. That’s why we’ve made sure the Emoji library has priority placement in the core toolbar so you can quickly support ideas visually with one click ❤️
Here’s why emojis are essential in honest, efficient, and emotional communication as well as some innovative ways to incorporate them in the collaborative process 🙌 👥 ✨
Emoji-onal support
At InVision, Emojis are integral to how we connect and build bonds across globally distributed teams. Whether using emojis in Freehand, Slack, or other apps, they are a universal language essential to the short, async communication style our remote teams depend upon.
With just one emoji, team members provide instant context and clarity when communication is supposed to be funny 🤣, if feedback is constructive rather than critical, if something is urgent 🆘 ⚠️🔝 vs. low priority 🐌 🐢 🔜 , and more. Emojis’ visual cues help reduce misinterpretations of the tone and intent expressed through written communication (emails, instant messages, etc.), providing much-needed emotional support.
Emojis boost efficiency
Those tiny expressions and symbols do great things for async communication and productivity — especially for Product Managers and Designers, who are often stalled and can’t move forward on projects while waiting for feedback from others. As a quick way to acknowledge work has been reviewed, Emojis smooth some of the wrinkles in the feedback process. If a team member sends an FYI about a project in another tool (we know there are a lot of FYIs), an Emoji can instantly validate their thoughts and let them know they are moving in the right direction. When someone sees a 👍 on their comment, they know it was received and everything is good to go.
Another way to use Emojis to engage collaborators is to replace bullet points with fun faces or other icons, keeping the viewer’s attention on key points and making the collaborative process more engaging.
Use Emojis to vote, label boards and sticky notes, create engaging, less text-heavy visuals for presentations, and help cross-functional collaborators understand big ideas. Rescue your collaborators from cognitive overload by simplifying and eliminating extraneous information with Emojis.
Emojis = more empathy
With so many organizations moving to hybrid/remote environments, people don’t always have the opportunity to meet in person. Teams need to get to know each other and Emojis can help establish empathy and make it easier for team members to relate to one another. Icebreaker activities are better with Emoji reactions expressing humor, joy, interest, and compassion. A seemingly small thing like a 😂,😲, 😍 or 🤗 can go a long way in creating connection.
Enhance the Emoji Experience
If you’re loving the new Emojis and want to keep the fun energy going, check out our Giphy add-on feature.
Stephanie Darling is the Editorial Content Manager at InVision. She has a background working with arts and culture organizations, and she loves all things food, dogs, and podcasts.
