Considering verbal contracts are enforceable I'm not surprised the judge would rule this way.

That seems like the correct ruling. Any reasonable person would think that a thumbs up emoji equates to "yes", "good", "affirmative" or any other word of agreement. Trying to get out of a contract because you used an emoji is a complete dick move.

👍

This is what I don't like about Teams on my android phone. There is no "Mark Read" button on the notification. It's either reply or like or open the app.

I mean, yeah. Best practice to be more clear though

I mean, it's a touch screen on a buggy-as-hell smartphone. Argue accidental input.

What if he had texted "👍🤣🤣🤣" or "👍 jk"? Or if the snarky thumbs-up was implied by the texter? There's a heck of a lot of room for ambiguity.