Cheapflights lets users search flights using emoji, because World Emoji Day

Emojis are everywhere, aren’t they? Don’t believe us? Well, now internet users can search for flights using them. Cheapflights, a flight search and deals website, has announced that in celebration of World Emoji Day (17 July), the company has allowed users to input emoji instead of text in the site’s search function.

Why? According to Cheapflights’ marketing director Samantha Otter, the company wanted to make search as “intuitive as possible”.

“Personalisation is the future of travel search, and this is a further step in that direction, allowing our users to communicate with us in a way they’re comfortable. It encourages frictionless dialogue in whichever setting and communication medium they prefer.”

“With World Emoji Day upon us, it felt like the ideal time to press the button on a function with which our team has had a lot of fun in the last few weeks. We hope our users do now as well,” she adds.

To use the emoji search function, users can input two flags to mark the flight’s origin and destination. For instance, a South African flag and an Australian flag will search for flights between these two countries.

Users can also use a koala if they have no idea what the Australian flag looks like, or a bowl of noodles and chopsticks for Japan.

The search function is available in South Africa, the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand on the Cheapflights website, iOS and Android apps.