New Report from Facemoji Keyboard Outlines Mobile Habits During COVID-19

Data Shows Surge in Emoji and App Usage as Stay-At-Home Orders Were Enacted

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Facemoji Keyboard today released a report highlighting how people around the world have adjusted their communication and entertainment habits as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key insights from the report include:

• Globally, people are feeling the stressful effects of the pandemic – the Grinning Face with Sweat emoji saw a 58% increase in usage from November to May.
• The Roll of Paper emoji, commonly used to indicate toilet paper, saw a 9,090% increase in usage in the U.S. between November 2019 and May 2020 as stores throughout the country experienced shortages.
• The Pleading Face emoji saw a 394% increase in usage from November 2019 to May 2020 – ranking 7th in total usage in the U.S. This emoji was not featured in the top 20 when data was surveyed in July, indicating an even larger increase in growth over the last year.
• The Face with Medical Mask emoji broke the top 100 in the U.S. for the first time on March 12. Usage continued to increase in the second half of March, hitting its highest usage on March 19 – marking a 119% increase in one week.
• In the U.S., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Discord experienced a surge in usage since the start of outbreak, then gradually returned to pre-COVID-19 usage levels in mid-April. TikTok, YouTube and Roblox were the only apps to retain high usage into May.

“There isn’t a precedent for what our world is currently experiencing. Each of us is coping using available resources, and for many that includes our phones,” said Natalia Lin, product lead of Facemoji Keyboard. “This report provides a glimpse into how people are expressing themselves online during these challenging times, as countries work to contain the virus and begin the path to normalcy.”

To view the full report, click here.

About Facemoji Keyboard

Facemoji Keyboard is an emoji-centric keyboard app that offers speech recognition and emoji prediction features, as well as a wide variety of stickers, GIFs and customizable keyboards. Facemoji Keyboard’s goal is to help people around the world express themselves in new ways with fun, creative emoji.