---
title: "Stars In Their Eyes: Why We Changed Our Emoji Ratings"
description: "Intercom’s conversation rating feature, built over two years ago, used a five-point emoji scale with 😍 as the top option, but after launch 30% of conversations requested its removal. Research conducted a couple of months later showed users associated 😍 with romantic partners, and male users were uncomfortable sending it to male agents, which artificially lowered agent ratings. This issue was also noticed by Intercom’s internal customer support team, who observed the same pattern. Intercom replaced 😍 with 🤩, the starry eyes emoji, which was perceived as excitement rather than romance, and both customers and the team approved. The change increased “Amazing” ratings by 11% overall and 17% for male agents, eliminating the gender gap and demonstrating how emoji interpretation varies across cultures and genders."
---

# Stars In Their Eyes: Why We Changed Our Emoji Ratings

[Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom) · Oct 12, 2026

**Type:** Explainer

## Summary

Intercom’s conversation rating feature, built over two years ago, used a five-point emoji scale with 😍 as the top option, but after launch 30% of conversations requested its removal. Research conducted a couple of months later showed users associated 😍 with romantic partners, and male users were uncomfortable sending it to male agents, which artificially lowered agent ratings. This issue was also noticed by Intercom’s internal customer support team, who observed the same pattern. Intercom replaced 😍 with 🤩, the starry eyes emoji, which was perceived as excitement rather than romance, and both customers and the team approved. The change increased “Amazing” ratings by 11% overall and 17% for male agents, eliminating the gender gap and demonstrating how emoji interpretation varies across cultures and genders.

## Context

Intercom used emoji ratings for customer satisfaction feedback. They noticed reluctance to use the heart eyes emoji and researched why.

## Approach / What changed

Intercom replaced the 😍 emoji with 🤩 in their conversation rating feature.

## Takeaways

- 30% of conversations analyzed included requests to remove the heart eyes emoji from Intercom’s rating scale.
- Users were reluctant to use 😍 because it carried romantic connotations; male users were especially uncomfortable sending it to male agents.
- Replacing 😍 with 🤩 led to an 11% increase in “Amazing” ratings overall and a 17% increase for male agents, closing the gender gap.

## FAQ

### Why did users avoid using the heart eyes emoji in Intercom' ratings?

Users associated the heart eyes emoji with romantic partners and felt it was inappropriate for rating support; male users in particular disliked sending it to male agents.

### What emoji did Intercom use to replace the heart eyes and why?

Intercom replaced 😍 with 🤩, the starry eyes emoji, because it conveyed excitement and high satisfaction without romantic connotations.

### What was the impact of changing the emoji on ratings?

After the change, "Amazing" ratings increased by 11% overall, and by 17% for male agents, eliminating the gender gap in top ratings.

**Tags:** [Customer Support](https://yomu.fyi/topic/customer-support), [Emoji](https://yomu.fyi/topic/emoji), [Product Design](https://yomu.fyi/topic/product-design)

- Source: [Intercom](https://www.intercom.com/blog/emoji-ratings)
- Source URL: https://www.intercom.com/blog/emoji-ratings
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-10-12T18:00:25.517Z

[Read original post](https://www.intercom.com/blog/emoji-ratings)