Pick a tone on one emoji and every other emoji updates to match: every hand, gesture, and person emoji, in one tap. It is available to everyone who types with Gboard.
My role
I designed the global skin tone setting and partnered with product managers and engineers to ship it.
One emoji vs. all emoji
| Before | After |
|---|---|
 |  |
Global skin tone reduced the taps it takes to set skin tones by 90%.
The research
Our study of 2,000 participants found that tone choice depends less on which emoji you send than on who you're sending it to. Gold emoji are more common in professional settings. Skin tones are used more when people are comfortable with their audience. Most people keep one consistent tone, and a quarter switch regularly. The redesign responds to the context of use rather than the content of use.
A behavior change
The emoji artwork is unchanged; only the behavior changed. That behavior matches what users already did manually: keep one tone everywhere, change it when the audience changes. The keyboard now does it in one tap.
"…adjust one and this preference will be applied to every other compatible emoji…" The Keyword
A redesign that impacts everyone
Everyone who sends a human emoji makes a tone choice; gold is a choice too. The redesign applies to all of them.
Using skin-toned emoji "creates a sense of connection, pride and representation." —Our emoji research
The setting also appears outside Gboard: Google Meet uses the same global skin tone for reactions.
Press and recognition
Announced on The Keyword, covered by 9to5Google, and featured in Google's World Emoji Day post. The project was an Anthem Awards finalist for Responsible Technology (Innovation).