At the beginning of the pandemic, 3% of emoji-using Venmo transactions included a ❤️. That made it the most used emoji on the platform in March 2020. One year later the use of ❤️ has continued to rise.

Last year, when we conducted a similar analysis, it was 🏀 usage that the pandemic affected most, reflecting the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournaments and their associated betting pools. This year 🎉 and 🥳 made big comebacks as the world begins to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The portion of these transactions that contained emoji dropped from 41% in March 2020 to 32% in March 2021.

Messages show 🍕is typically used to reimburse someone for paying for pizza. Usage dropped considerably in 2021.

Use of the money emoji like 💸, 💵, and 💰have all declined from last year’s levels. Expense splitting app Splitwise uses these three emoji (and 🔙) in its default Venmo messages. In March 2020, Splitwise was mentioned in 446 messages per 100,000, this year it fell to 408.

Use of ⛽ has dropped significantly. Messages show it’s used not only to pay for gasoline, but also with other shared utility expenses.

Transactions including the ☕ have increased. Compared to 2021, transactions last March using ☕showed more messages explicitly supporting front-line workers.

Golf courses have seen a surge of golfers during the pandemic. ⛳ usage is higher.

Of all the emoji that appeared in at least 0.5% transactions in March 2020, 😷, 🧻, and 🦠 were the least used in March 2021.