Very curious - what do you think makes the image version superior to the text-based smiley?

And as a follow-on, do you think the animated and personalized versions of these emojis make it that much more effective?

For me, the text version communicates the same meaning and context, so it’s fascinating to see examples where the representational medium has a significant impact.

This smiling-face-with-smiling-eyes is one of the few emoji that cause an automatic emotional response inside me. Another is https://emojipedia.org/loudly-crying-face/ (Apple rendition of both, particularly).

Text, and ASCII emoticons, just don't do that.

(and I'm guessing that after I see enough "we can save you money on your car insurance :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes: manipulative overuse by marketing "humans", emojis won't do it anymore either).

(Although, do you genuinely think a photo of a cat being cute is emotionally the same and just as effective as a description of a cat being cute?)

There’s a whole range of “smiling face” emoji with slightly different smiles, and slightly different eye expressions, some blushing, some not. In the context of “i have all these options to choose from”, choosing that one particular option conveys more information than what the text-based alternative provides

it's definitely different for everybody. text based ones are limited in range of emotions they can convey.

I never understood people that spent money on digital goods until I found kakaotalk emojis.

for me there is no comparison. I adore their animated emojis and I'm willing to pay for them as do many others.

you can check them out.

https://youtu.be/sKCPUfPaJBI