HAPPY WORLD EMOJI DAY, 2019!!

IT’S THE 5TH ANNUAL WORLD EMOJI DAY!!

Why use old-school, out-of-date facial expressions when you can convey your emotion in an EMOJI!

But the emoji wasn’t always around …

And when it first started, it was merely a smile face, sad face, thumbs up and maybe the odd animal.

BUT NOW!?

Now .. check out ALL THE FACTS that TIME magazine put together to help you learn about the emoji, it’s history and how many there are!

At least 7 …

1. For the third year running, the “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji reigns supreme on social media.

It dominates on Twitter and on Facebook as the most-used on both social media platforms. This should come as no surprise to those versed in emoji; after all, this same symbol was even the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2015.

2. There are now 2,666 official emoji.

The Unicode Consortium, the governing body that manages the official emoji keyboard, expanded its offerings dramatically in 2017, thanks to a new array of options in skin tone, gender selection, and professions. There were just 722 as recently as 2015.

3. Emoji were first invented in 1999, but not commonly adopted until 2011.

Japan’s Shigetaka Kurita first crafted the universal language in preparation for the launch of a mobile internet system called NTT Docomo, with 176 12-pixel-by-12-pixel symbols.

4. Now, 5 billion emoji are sent daily on Facebook Messenger alone.

They’re also wildly popular on Twitter, which regularly makes custom emoji for events and hashtags, and Instagram, where users can hashtag with emoji. Besides the “Face with Tears of Joy,” people tend to love the red heart, the heart eyes smiley, and the kissing face smiley across platforms.

5. A group set a new record for dressing up in emoji costumes around the world.

Dedicated fans gathered in cities like Dubai, Dublin, and Moscow to set a new Guinness Record for donning emoji-face costumes simultaneously in advance of World Emoji Day and the release of The Emoji Movie.

6. Some of the most-requested emojis include an afro, a bagel and hands making a heart.

Emojipedia tracks requests by popularity for the year, with other symbols like a bald person, takeaway coffee and a chef making a kissing face also showing up as some of the most-wanted additions in 2017.

7. World Emoji Day takes place on July 17 for a totally logical reason

The “calendar” emoji — a minimized version of Apple’s iCal icon for both its desktop and mobile app — shows the default date of July 17.

And guess what …

If this wasn’t enough … WE EVEN HAVE AN EMOJI MOVIE!!

A movie literally based around emoticons (as we old folk called them when they first appeared).

CHECK IT OUT!

And, according to THE STARTUP …

1. THE FIRST EMOJI WAS CREATED IN JAPAN

These little characters are changing the way we communicate. The first emoji has been designed in Japan by Shigetaka Kurita in 1999. Some emojis are very specific to Japanese culture, such as a bowing businessman????, a face wearing a face mask????, or a group of emoji representing popular foods like ramen noodles???? and sushi????.

2. EMOJI POPULARITY IS CREDITED TO APPLE

They were originally made for cellphones, but then fully embraced by the masses in 2012 when Apple released iOS 6. iPhone users quickly learned they could activate the emoji keyboard to add fun smileys and tiny icons in their text messages.

3. EMOJI WAS ADDED TO OXFORD DICTIONARIES

In August 2013 was emoji added to Oxford Dictionaries. The definition of emoji in English:

“A small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion.”

In Japanese emoji means e ‘picture’ + moji ‘letter, character’ ????.

4. THE 150 MOST-USED EMOJIS ON TWITTER

Based on Brandwatch Analytics, the most-used emoji on Twitter is ????.

And the wildest of all to us … 

8. MUSEUM OF MODERN ART DISPLAYS ORIGINAL SET OF EMOJIS

The original 176 emojis for mobile phones and pagers released in 1999 are displayed in New York. They were designed on a simple 12 × 12 pixel grid but play a huge role in today’s emoji designs.