Among the number of languages Google understands, you can now add emoji to the list. That’s true on Twitter at least, where tweeting an emoji at the official @Google account will return a link to a set of relevant local search results.
Here’s an example from when I tweeted a pizza emoji to Google:
@mattgsouthern When you say "pizza," we say https://t.co/4Yhj7yYH53 #KnowNearby pic.twitter.com/V4rW6bptYt
— Google (@Google) December 8, 2016
With each response Google promotes its #KnowNearby campaign by appending the hashtag to the end of each tweet.
Google is reportedly capable of understanding and providing helpful responses to over 200 emoji. Emoji it understands range from food, to products, to events, and more. If you tweet an emoji to Google that it doesn’t understand, it will respond suggesting you should try another search.
@mattgsouthern 💭 Hmm. Care to try another emoji? Hint: #KnowNearby
— Google (@Google) December 8, 2016
What? No response for penguin?
When responding, Google will link you to search results for queries like “pizza nearby”, or “shoe stores nearby”, and so on. The responses are not instant either, ranging from 30 seconds to a minute from my experience so far.
Truth be told, it’s actually faster to open the browser and/or Google app on your phone and enter in the search manually. Unless you’re in the Twitter app already, tweeting an emoji Google’s way and waiting around for a response is not any faster than searching the old fashioned way. Though if you’re not in the mood to type it is an appealing alternative.
