We thought emoji love couldn’t get any bigger. From Instagram captions to email sign-offs, the aubergine, terrified cat and poop characters have allowed us to convey so much more than the plain old alphabet ever could have done. Maybe that’s why British company Intelligent Environments has had the genius idea of introducing emoji PIN codes as an alternative to the standard four-digit numbers we currently use to do our banking.
Tapping sassy woman, red wine, eye roll, ghost into a cash point might soon become a reality. According to the company, some digital banks have already expressed an interest in their Emoji Passcode service, which is aimed at 15 to 25-year-olds (obvs).
Speaking about the proposal in a statement, managing director David Webber said: “Our research shows 64 per cent of millenials regularly communicate only using emojis. We decided to reinvent the passcode for a new generation by developing the world’s first emoji security technology.”
Our fave keyboard for flirting and one-second texting could also make passcodes far harder to crack. The 44 available emoticons provide way more potential combos than the numbers zero to nine. Plus, experts say that most of us find it easier to remember images (which we imagine will be VERY handy when we're smashed). We're raising our emoji preach hands.
That said, while this might be the most exciting thing to happen to our bank accounts since contactless got acquainted with Pret, there might be a flaw. “People are lazy and will adopt the easiest way through,” former memory champion Michael Tipper told BBC News. “If you’re presented with a screen of emojis and you can’t be bothered to remember a sequence, you’re going to pick the ones in the four corners or the top row – and then you are left with an equally insecure technology.”
That being said, we're giving this idea an enthusiastic emoji thumbs up.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.