World Emoji Day is celebrated globally on July 17th every year. Emojis are expressive icons or smiley faces used in electronic messaging. This day celebrates these digital symbols that have helped people worldwide express their feelings more effectively.
Recently, emojis have become a universal language, filling web pages and social media platforms with various colorful symbols everywhere around the globe. They have even become an alternative to written language.
The Most Used Emoji Worldwide
Currently, there are over 2,666 officially recognized emojis worldwide, while more than 500 emojis are used that are not officially recognized.
The “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji is the most used emoji globally, followed by the heart emoji.
Emoji symbols now include everything from modes of transportation and food to a wide variety of wild and domesticated animals, all commonly used across social media platforms.
Why July 17th?
The reason July 17 was chosen as World Emoji Day is because the popular messaging app WhatsApp uses an emoji displaying the number 17. According to the New York Times, Jeremy Burge, the founder of Emojipedia (the official emoji database online), chose July 17 in 2014 to be World Emoji Day, based on the date when emojis first appeared on iPhones.
What is an Emoji?
The word “emoji” is of Japanese origin. Emojis first appeared in the late 1990s.
The term comes from the Japanese words “e” meaning “picture” and “moji” meaning “character” or “letter.”
Emojis became widely popular with the spread of smartphones and the launch of many instant messaging and social networking apps such as Facebook, Twitter (now X), WhatsApp, and Instagram.
History of Emojis
The first emoji was created between 1998 and 1999 by the Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita, who was working on a mobile internet platform called i-mode.
Kurita was inspired by weather forecast icons and street signs, and he developed the idea into what became the first emoji set.
Continuous Development of Emojis
Emojis are updated every year by global companies specializing in digital communication. The website emojipedia.org tracks all emoji updates across social media platforms and operating systems. It now covers more than 1,800 emojis, which include much more than just facial expressions.
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