Simple Smile, Thumbs Up
Last week, Slack rolled out an update that was seemingly small, but my guess is that it will have a far larger impact in the long run. Now baked into the product are ‘emoji reactions’ — that is, a way to reply to a message without replying at all. And, perhaps, without typing at all.
It’s one of those features that’s so subtly brilliant, that it’s absolutely obvious in hindsight. And, if I’m right, it’s something I suspect will start appearing in many other places. It’s the “Like” button times 722.
Looking at my own usage of various messaging services, I’ve noticed a natural trend towards doing something similar. When people message me, be it on iMessage or Facebook Messenger or Twitter DM or even over email, I tend to respond with an emoji thumbs up a lot these days. Obviously, it’s not appropriate for all messages, but the ones where you might say “ok” or “cool” or “got it” or “great” or “thanks,” it seems to work. That thumb, perhaps because of the aforementioned “Like” button, is awfully versatile.
Two problems. First, again, the thumb isn’t always appropriate. And sending other emoji responses feels a bit too risqué in environments not built specifically to message that way. Second, when you send back that emoji, you’re still sending another message. Another something for someone to open and read and interpret.
Slack’s emoji reactions solve both of these issues. Now, all 722 emoji possibilities are native to messages on the service. They’re all there, just waiting to be added. And, because Slack supports custom emoji, the possibilities are quite literally endless.
The second solution is arguably more important. By adding these emoji as reactions, not responses, Slack is indirectly cutting down on message clutter. The very existence of these emoji payloads prompts a user to think twice about sending another message when an emoji will do.
A perfect example is work email. You know the threads where someone joins a team or does something worthy of congratulations? 75 emails in your inbox later, you wonder how much of a dick you’ll look like if you too don’t ‘reply all’ with a message that at least a half dozen of your colleagues have already sent verbatim. Yeah, those.
Emoji reactions, if they existed in email, would kill off those.
They would also kill off the email villains known as “K” and “Nice” and “Thank you.” and so on. If I did a search of my inbox for email responses that are literally just “K,” I’d guess there are hundreds if not thousands. This is 2015, I should never need to get that email.
People have tried to build similar functionality on top of email, and they’ll continue trying. But because of the way email is architected, it’s a hard thing to do. The closest we’ve gotten is the “star” in Gmail, which is really just a fancy message flag. You would need everyone you know to adopt a new “email plus” service for it to really work. You know, sort of like Slack.
So I welcome our new emoji response overlords. At least until the inevitable GIF responses enter the fray as well. For now, thumbs up.
Disclosure: Google Ventures, where I’m a general partner, is an investor in Slack. Two thumbs up.
