1. Emoji communicate more in less space.

A variable or function name that fully describes itself can end up being as much as five words long. Most places have coding standards that limit variable names to abbreviations, to reduce the horizontal space used, but this can make variable or function names non-descriptive and hard to understand. An emoji can communicate the same purpose in the space of one character.

2. Emoji break down language barriers.

Since emojis are pictures instead of language-specific characters, there are no language barriers associated with them. This makes communication with off-shore groups much easier to facilitate.

3. Emoji make your program smaller.

A one-character emoji variable name takes up less disk space than a five word long variable name. If all variable and function names are emoji instead of words, your app takes up 1% of the space it would otherwise.

4.Emoji makes users happier.

There’s nothing like an error message with a smiley face at the end to brighten a user’s day and to let them know everything is ok.

5. ಠ_ಠ

6. Emoji makes code review easier.

When you don’t have to read all the code, but instead just look at a picture of the program’s flow, it becomes faster and easier to spot problems and understand code.

7. Math symbols break down skill barriers.

When you write your algorithm in code, it’s understandable by programmers. But when you write your algorithm with math symbology, any one who studies or works with math can easily validate or correct formulas.

8. Emoji allow mobile development.

Emoji were designed with mobile phones in mind, and by applying them to your code you reduce the amount of typing required to add functionality, which opens up the ability for your developers to work on the go with their phones. Now your developers can be productive no matter where they are, so long as they have their phone on them.

9. Emoji add humanity to your code.

Research shows people react to picture faces the same way they react to real faces, which allows you to communicate more information in your code.

10. Emoji better communicate the gravity of an error.

See below:

func divideByToString(a:Int, b:Int) -> String { if (b == 0) { return "(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻"; } return "\(a/b)"; }

(Ok that’s technically an emoticon but it still works.)