The use of emojis on mobile devices and social media networks has become a large part of popular western culture. The ideograms used in electronic messages were given a name based on the Japanese word “emodʑi” , where e (絵) means “picture” and moji (文字) means “character”. The plural version of emoji is emoji. The emojis initially started off as emoticons, which were typographics (e.g. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), but emoji were later introduced as actual pictures instead of typographics. In 1997, the emojis originated on Japanese mobile phones and in 2010s, they became increasingly popular worldwide after being added to several mobile operating systems. In 2015, ‘Face with tears of joy’ emoji was announced as the word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries.
There are a total there are 3,178 emojis in the Unicode Standard. The Unicode Standard is updated on an ongoing basis, and new emojis are rolled out to platforms by platform vendors (such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung), or app vendors (such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp). Updating to the latest version of an app or operating system is the most common way to get new emojis, when support is added by a vendor.
The Emojis can be divided into eight categories, including 😃 Smileys & People, 🐻 Animals & Nature, 🍔 Food & Drink, ⚽ Activity, 🌇 Travel & Places, 💡 Objects, 🔣 Symbols, and 🎌 Flags. If you have ever wondered which Emojis are most popular, we have prepared a list below with Emoji meanings and a comparison of Emojis across different mobile platforms.
Most Popular Emojis and their meanings
If you are looking for a list and meaning of all emojis, you can get the complete list by visiting the unicode website.
I am officially a tech addict and enjoy providing my views on matters related to this industry. I am always interested in trying out new tech gadgets and I have owned multiple smartphones including the legendary HTC One, SGS2, Nexus 4, iPhone 4, 5S, 6S, XR, Note 9. You can ask me any tech related questions in the comment section or on twitter @hookedNav