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World Emoji Day: The Fifth Annual Celebration of Emojis

Ellen Lees
By Ellen Lees,
updated on Jul 17, 2018

World Emoji Day: The Fifth Annual Celebration of Emojis

We use them every day, but what do they mean to us, and which are our favourites?

The date famously displayed on the Calendar Emoji (๐Ÿ“…) is July 17, which is why today was chosen. According to WorldEmojiDay.com, today is โ€œmuch bigger than just one emoji. World Emoji Day is a celebration of all emojis.โ€

Already, the hashtag #WorldEmojiDay is trending on Twitter, with people all over the world joining the discussion.

More than 150 new emojis have been approved in 2018 so far, bringing the total number to a whopping 2,823. This includes variations for skin tone and gender, with the new additions including redheads, a kangaroo, a lobster and a skateboard.

Emojis truly have changed the way many of us send a message. In fact, by mid-2015, half of all comments on Instagram included an emoji.

So what are our most used emojis?

  • On Facebook, the most popular emojis include Face With Tears of Joy (๐Ÿ˜‚) and Smiling Face with Heart Eyes (๐Ÿ˜). With more than 700 million emojis being used in posts daily, and 900 million emojis being sent every day without text.
  • On Twitter, the most used emoji is the Face With Tears of Joy (๐Ÿ˜‚), with 86% of emoji users on Twitter being 24 or younger.
  • For Apple, the top five emojis include; ๐Ÿ˜‚โค๏ธ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜˜

Fun fact: The Peach emoji (๐Ÿ‘) is only used as a fruit by 7% of users. The rest of us, well... it's mostly used for โ€˜non-fruit usesโ€™.

Emojis with meaning

Today, we're seeing not just jokes and entertainment, but how emojis are used in a way that encourages people to reach out to loved ones who may be going through a difficult time.

UK charity Independent Age are getting involved, tweeting โ€œhappily we now have older people emojis. Letโ€™s not stop there - which new ones can we create to help people live with independence in later life?โ€

Australian suicide prevention charity, RUOK have also tweeted, reminding people to look out for the signs someone is going a tough time.

Who will you message today, and what emoji will you be using? ๐Ÿ’•

The World Emoji Awards

Voting is now open for the 2018 World Emoji Awards, categories include;

  • Best New Emoji
  • Most Anticipated Emoji
  • Excellence in Emoji Use
  • Emoji of the Year (Awarded to the emoji that best describes 2018)

Winners will be announced at 3.20pm ET on World Emoji Day, July 17 ๐ŸŽ‰

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