Option to disable religious holiday emojis 🙏

Feedback & Ideas
#1

Hi,

I’m all for diversity and inclusion and in general have nothing against the religious holiday emojis. It’s one of the easter egg features which I actually really like. However, I think sending them for each transaction to all of your 4 million+ customers is no longer a good idea for several reasons:

  • Some of your users might be atheists, hence find them annoying / offensive (even on a subconscious level)
  • In general, banks shouldn’t be mixing business and religion
  • You won’t be able to cover every single religious event e.g. I’m a Sikh, but didn’t see one for Vaisakhi?
  • You might end up pairing merchants that go against that religion’s beliefs e.g. I don’t think the merchant Perfick Pork and a Ramadan related emoji would work :grimacing:.

It’s fine if you wish to continue sending them, but could there be an option in the settings to disable them for users who do not want to see them? :thinking:

Thanks & Happy Holidays :slight_smile:

#2

This has been raised before. Monzo are quite selective about which events they choose to support which in my view supports your point that they shouldn’t be doing it.

Brace yourself . There are a few people who cannot have sensible discussions about anything to do with diversity!

10 Likes
#3

What’s today’s emoji for?

I’m an atheist but I like them. Educational (or at least it will be when someone tells me what today’s is)

3 Likes
#4

Maybe I simply do not use my monzo card enough but I don’t even understand the conversation?

How are these sent?

1 Like
#5

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1 Like
#6

Thanks - I have honestly never noticed this - which I guess is also therefore my view on it… :smile:

3 Likes
#7

There’s not too many days each year that have them. Eid, Christmas, Halloween and a couple more that I can’t remember

#8

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Literally just logged in here to report this as a bug. Wasn’t sure why a card payment to my Tesco credit card had a different emoji than normal.

I didn’t realise it was a feature until I read this one.

2 Likes
#9

It’s a little bit late… But it’s for Eid! :hot_coral_heart: :star_and_crescent:

(I didn’t know myself :see_no_evil: but I asked our engineers and it looks like the timing was a little bit off this year)

We did this this time last year for Eid (the Islamic festival celebrating the end of the fasting period).

The Islamic calendar is a bit shorter so it doesn’t line up with the Gregorian calendar. This year, Eid was nearly 2 weeks ago.

There’s a chance we’ll remove this as it doesn’t make too much sense to keep it today :innocent: (but that’s not been confirmed just yet) :slightly_smiling_face:

9 Likes
#10

Yeah that’s a fail :see_no_evil:

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#11

We’ve just removed this belated emoji, the change should sync up in the next few minutes :smiley:

Meaning :star_and_crescent: will no longer be present on new transactions :+1:

3 Likes
#12

There are even more who are against a user option to cover every eventuality!

2 Likes
#13

Am I reading this thread right and basically all these emojis are just plugged into the Monzo App equivalent of a calender invite with “recurring event > annual” turned on?

Love it.

5 Likes
#14

I’m personally looking forward to the annual “WHY IS THERE A RAINBOW FLAG ON EVERYTHING, WHEN IS STRAIGHT PRIDE?” rage posts.

:nail_care:

6 Likes
#15

I agree with the point that it should be all or none, selectively picking religions will just make it a bigger headache.

6 Likes
#16

Ah no, those rainbows are actually to thank the NHS… :roll_eyes: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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#17

Especially when, by their own admission, they can’t even get the dates right :joy:

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#18

So really it should add IF(day=userbirthday, :cake:, else())

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#19

Do you have to be religious to celebrate these events?

I can only really share my experience with Christmas because I’m not overly familiar with others. I would say that most people don’t consider the bible, sacrifices made, go to church or do anything religious as such.

It’s just a nice break from normal life where you get to spend time with friends, family and all the people that matter. Perhaps reflect on how fortunate you are and help others too. Anyone and everyone can be part of that whatever their beliefs.

4 Likes
#20

It’s not about being religious to celebrate a specific event, but just that some people don’t want a reminder of something that essentially doesn’t mean much to them.

First and foremost Monzo is a bank, and not a holiday reminders calendar. It’s a little inconsiderate to show the icons to everyone and not have an option to disable them.

From a UX perspective, I would much prefer to quickly glance to see the usual merchant logo affirming my purchase with a particular merchant, rather than look confused for a moment and try decipher from the text to confirm the same thing.

I have nothing against celebrations like Xmas, but at that time the last thing I want to see at that time of the year is a Xmas tree emoji reminding me of a holiday synonymous with commercialism and stress :grimacing:.

2 Likes