..are one the most used keyboard features, with more than five billion of them used every day on social media.
The most popular one on Facebook and Twitter is the laughing yellow face with tears of joy, while Instagram has the heart emoji as the most used one.

The Emojis On Our Phones

<ul>
<li>In 1999, a simple pictogram listing of 176 icons was invented by a Japanese interface designer, Shigetaka Kurita, for a phone company. The pictograms became a huge hit in Japan, prompting their use across the world.</li>
<li>The universal body overseeing emojis, the Unicode Consortium has listed over 3000 official emojis, which are in use today. It has been setting the global standard for symbols, characters, and later emojis, since 1991.</li>
</ul>

A Brief History Of Emojis

<img alt="A brief history of the internet's 3000 emojis" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjQzMDk5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2ODYxNDU4M30.utrGYw5ynlpyCIFSMsyNxlmoqvwRb3Z60c8uzfricwE/img.jpg?width=1245&amp;quality=85&amp;coordinates=0%2C417%2C0%2C122&amp;height=700" width="703" height="396"><div dir="ltr">2020 saw the release of 117 <a href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/117-new-emojis-in-final-list-for-2020/" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr">new emojis</a> including the bubble tea, the placard and the transgender flag, growing the number of the popular pictograms to 3,136.</div> Already, 217 new emojis have been <a href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/217-new-emojis-in-final-list-for-2021/" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr">announced for release in 2021, which will up the number to 3,353.</a> Users can look forward to start sending emojis like the flaming heart, a bearded woman and interracial couples later in the year.

	<a href="https://www.statista.com/study/12327/mobile-communications-industry-statista-dossier/" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr">What emojis appear on people's phones </a>and on their social media platforms is not arbitrary but has been coordinated by the Unicode Consortium since 1995, when the first 76 pictograms were adapted by U.S. nonprofit. <a href="http://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts-12.0/emoji-versions.html" dir="ltr">The Consortium has been overseeing the character inventory</a> of electronic text processing since 1991 and sets a standard for symbols, characters in different scripts and – last but not least – emojis, which are encoded uniformly across different platforms even though styles may vary between providers.

	Even though the first Unicode listings predate them, <a href="https://stories.moma.org/the-original-emoji-set-has-been-added-to-the-museum-of-modern-arts-collection-c6060e141f61" dir="ltr">a 1999 set of 176 simple pictograms </a>invented by interface designer Shigetaka Kurita for a Japanese phone operator is considered to be the precursor of modern-day emojis. The concept gained popularity in Japan and by 2010, Unicode rolled out a massive release of more than 1,000 emojis to get with the burgeoning trend - the rest is history.
<img src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20850%20817'%3E%3C/svg%3E" width="623" height="599">
	Different skin colors have been available for emojis since 2015. 2014 saw the release of the anti-bullying emoji "eye in speech bubble" in cooperation with The Ad Council, which produces public service ennouncements in the U.S. Same-sex couples and families have been available since the first major emoji-release in 2010.

	Today it is estimated that more than <a href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/5-billion-emojis-sent-daily-on-messenger/" dir="ltr">5 billion emojis</a> are used every day on Facebook and in Facebook Messenger, with New Year's eve being the most popular day to use them, according to the social network. The most popular emoji on <a href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/facebook-reveals-most-and-least-used-emojis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr">Facebook</a>, as well as on <a href="http://emojitracker.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr">Twitter</a>, is the "laughing face with tears of joy", as it is officially called, while the heart emoji reigns supreme on<a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-emojis-infographic" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr"> Instagram.</a>
Reprinted with permission of the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr">World Economic Forum</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/emoji-numbers-facts-social-media-how-many-twitter-facebook-instagram/" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr">original article</a>.

We send billions of emojis per day, on social media and our phones. The number of emojis available for use has skyrocketed over the past decade, coming up to more than 3000 this year. Learn about the history of these tiny pictograms and what's yet to come in this article.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

communication

Communication

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Already, 217 new emojis have been <a dir="ltr" href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/217-new-emojis-in-final-list-for-2021/" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced for release in 2021, which will up the number to 3,353. </a>Users can look forward to start sending emojis like the flaming heart, a bearded woman and interracial couples later in the year.

<a dir="ltr" href="https://www.statista.com/study/12327/mobile-communications-industry-statista-dossier/" rel="noopener noreferrer">What emojis appear on people's phones </a>and on their social media platforms is not arbitrary but has been coordinated by the Unicode Consortium since 1995, when the first 76 pictograms were adapted by U.S. nonprofit. <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts-12.0/emoji-versions.html">The Consortium has been overseeing the character inventory </a>of electronic text processing since 1991 and sets a standard for symbols, characters in different scripts and – last but not least – emojis, which are encoded uniformly across different platforms even though styles may vary between providers.

Even though the first Unicode listings predate them, <a dir="ltr" href="https://stories.moma.org/the-original-emoji-set-has-been-added-to-the-museum-of-modern-arts-collection-c6060e141f61">a 1999 set of 176 simple pictograms </a>invented by interface designer Shigetaka Kurita for a Japanese phone operator is considered to be the precursor of modern-day emojis. The concept gained popularity in Japan and by 2010, Unicode rolled out a massive release of more than 1,000 emojis to get with the burgeoning trend - the rest is history.

Different skin colors have been available for emojis since 2015. 2014 saw the release of the anti-bullying emoji "eye in speech bubble" in cooperation with The Ad Council, which produces public service ennouncements in the U.S. Same-sex couples and families have been available since the first major emoji-release in 2010.

Today it is estimated that more than <a dir="ltr" href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/5-billion-emojis-sent-daily-on-messenger/">5 billion emojis </a>are used every day on Facebook and in Facebook Messenger, with New Year's eve being the most popular day to use them, according to the social network. The most popular emoji on <a dir="ltr" href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/facebook-reveals-most-and-least-used-emojis/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook </a>, as well as on <a dir="ltr" href="http://emojitracker.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twitter </a>, is the "laughing face with tears of joy", as it is officially called, while the heart emoji reigns supreme on<a dir="ltr" href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-emojis-infographic" rel="noopener noreferrer">Instagram. </a>

Reprinted with permission of the <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.weforum.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer">World Economic Forum </a>. Read the <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/emoji-numbers-facts-social-media-how-many-twitter-facebook-instagram/" rel="noopener noreferrer">original article </a>.

The history of the 5 billion emojis used every single day

The Emojis On Our Phones

A Brief History Of Emojis

CURATED BY

Related collections

More like this