When using emojis, the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is proven true daily by all social media, emails, and other communication platforms. Many responses or comments are made by using a string of emojis to express how they felt, or even just one emoji can suffice as a response.
Origin Of Emojis
This creative response technique is all thanks to Shigetaka Kurita, who designed the very first emoji in the late 1990s. It first appeared on Japanese mobile phones. Their primary purpose was to alleviate the 250 character email restriction and help people communicate efficiently on their devices. They were able to say more by using a range of icons. Even the name emoji hails from Japan. The “e” in emoji means picture while “Moji” means character. Arigato to the creator.
How Many Emojis Are There?
Every year new updates and releases ensure that the emojis world doesn’t become too bored with what they have at their fingertips. Currently, there are over 3353 emojis. In 2021 334 new emojis were released, while 207 were introduced during an update in the same year. It’s expected that in 2022 107 new emojis will make an appearance.
Equality Through Pictures
Emojis have made it possible to even the playing field of cyber. Now everyone has an equal shot to express themselves without the fear of misinterpretation due to culture or language barriers.
Most Used Emojis On Twitter
Emoji use has never been higher, based on 6.7 billion Tweets gathered in over 10 years. 20.69% of all Tweets include an emoji. That is one out of five Tweets.
- 😂 Still standing strong at number one is the Smiling Face with Tears
- 🙏 Runner-up to the podium is the Pleading hands
- 🥴 Closing in at number three is the Woozy Face
- 🥰 With over a million page views, the most popular new smiley is none other than the Smiling Face with Hearts emoji. It might feel like you had this loveable emojis for ages in your menu, but it has only been introduced into the emojis world for a couple of months.
- 👆 The point emoji has become a favorite for Twitter users due to its functionality.
Interesting Facts…
- Gen Z is the most popular group who communicated more with emojis than other groups as 86% are 24 years and younger who use emojis on Twitter.
- Even better is that women users on Twitter use emojis 57% while men only 43%
- During the 2020 World Emoji Award, the White Heart was crowned the most popular new emoji. In addition, the Smiling Face with Tears got the most anticipated emoji award. At the same time, the Raised Fist was named the most 2020 emoji.
- The peach emoji is only used by 7% of people as a fruit.
The emojis are small but mighty as they represent a highly relatable, universal language that everyone can understand. These colorful icons are rich in variety and culturally diverse. For the conversations, photos, or videos where you are dumbfounded and simply have no words, the emoji is your gateway to creatively express yourself where words fail.