In a move to facilitate better representation, Google has shifted its focus away from specificity and towards fludity. The tech company has launched gender-fluid emojis that are blurring boundaries and bringing ambiguity and openness to the keyboard.

Despite there being 2,823 emojis in the Unicode Standard, the thirst for ways to express emotion digitally appears insatiable. Even more so now, with the creation of Emoji Builder, a tool allowing users to design their own emojis, complete with a randomising function.

Emojis have become ubiquitous in digital communications, but their use in marketing campaigns hasn’t always been successful. Canvas8 spoke to Dr. Sara Kim, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong, to learn how people interpret and react to brands that use these symbols.

What’s driving people towards private messaging apps? How should brands communicate in a polarised cultural climate? Are bots on the verge of mainstream acceptance? In this part of the 2019 Expert Outlook, we speak to three experts about what’s changing in the way people interact globally.