Moumita Das Roy, Marketing & Communications Manager at Dulux New Zealand, explores the universal language of emojis in her latest article celebrating #WorldEmojiDay. She explores the history, cultural impact, and evolving use of these tiny digital icons that have transformed our online communication. From their origins in Japan to the latest updates and trends in marketing, discover how emojis connect us across cultures and communities. Read more about the diverse and inclusive ways to use emojis in your communications.

July 17, is #WorldEmojiDay and what would I do without emojis 😨

The tiny digital icons have revolutionised our online communication, peppering our texts and expressing emotions without words.

Emojis help me to:

  • Keep it real
  • Connect better
  • Say it without words
  • Communicate across cultures and communities

I make it a point not to use too many of them though, because it spoils the reading experience for someone reading with a screen reader. Let's dive into some diverse and inclusive ways of using emojis in our communications.

Emojis originated in Japan in the late 1990s. Shigetaka Kurita, an engineer at NTT DoCoMo, created the first set of 176 emojis in 1999. The simple 12x12 pixel images were designed to convey emotions and concepts quickly on mobile devices.

What began as a handful of basic expressions has exploded into a vast library of over 3,000 officially recognised emojis. The Unicode Consortium, responsible for standardising emojis across platforms, regularly adds new symbols to reflect our changing world.

Emojipedia declared 2015 as “the year of Emoji diversity.”

Introduction of skin-tone emojis. I always set my skin tone before using an emoji, it is like aligning my real self with my digital version.

Emojipedia introduced skin tone emojis in 2015

Rainbow was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.

The rainbow emoji is often used to represent the rainbow community

Wheelchair Symbol was approved as part of Unicode 4.1 in 2005 and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015. Many platforms now use the Accessible Icon Project style image for this emoji, which displays the person in the wheelchair in a more active position.

Different styles to depict wheelchairs - one depicting more self-reliance than the other

25 skin-tone handshake emoji options were introduced in 2022.

25 different skin-tone handshake options

Last year's emoji update draft included a head shake, a phoenix, gender-neutral families and directions specifying across disabilities.

New emojis introduced last year

The next emoji update scheduled for September 2024, is the Unicode 16.0 version.

New emojis are being introduced in Unicode 16.0

Eight new emoji are set to roll out with this update, with new symbols in these categories: Smileys and Emotion, People and Body, Animals and Nature, Food and Drink, Objects, Symbols, and Flags.

The first new emoji is described as a "face with bags under eyes", keywords for this face are exhausted, sleepy, and tired. Next is the "fingerprint" emoji, with the keywords forensics, identity, and safety. With the keywords barren, drought, and winter, there's a new emoji "leafless tree". Under Food and Drink, a red, bulbous root vegetable is added, with keywords beet, garden, root, turnip, and vegetable. A "harp", with keywords Cupid, instrument, love, music, and orchestra and a "shovel", with dig, hole, scoop, and spade as keywords are being introduced. The Symbols section has an abstract "splatter", with keywords holi, paint, spill, and stain. Read more about them here.

Animated Emojis - Animojis?

Emojis have advanced in technology with the latest smartphones. High-resolution displays allow for more detailed and expressive designs. Animated emojis, or "animojis," have added a new dimension to digital expression. Check out my animoji below and let me know if this looks like me 😁


Moumita Das Roy emoji 

Emojis impact our digital communication.

  1. Emojis provide emotional context often lost in text-based exchanges. A simple smiley face or heart can change the tone of a message and prevent misunderstandings.
  2. Emojis transcend linguistic boundaries as a visual language. A thumbs-up or a smiling face is universally understood.
  3. Emojis are a language of its own, a robust system of communication, capable of conveying complex ideas and emotions.
  4. While some emojis are universally understood, usage can also vary across cultures. For example, the 🙏 folded hands emoji is used to express gratitude in Western countries but is used as a prayer symbol in some Asian cultures. And some even say it is not a prayer symbol but a hi-five!
  5. Emojis are a great way to say a lot without saying a lot. But every time you use an emoji, a screen reader describes each one. If you use a series of smiley faces in a row, a blind person is hearing the screen reader repeat it. Every single time. 😊😊😊 Smiley face. Smiley face. Smiley face. That’s already three times. Six times for a blind person. Not a great reading experience for sure!

In recent years, the focus has been to make emojis more inclusive and representative of diverse communities. This has led to the introduction of emojis with different skin tones, gender options, disability representations, and various cultural and religious expressions.

Emojis as a trend - Marketing, AI, and 3D.

  1. Emoji usage in branding and marketing is known to increase engagement rates and make brands appear more relatable and human. Have you noticed one or two emojis in an email subject line? It is done for a reason 😉
  2. Custom Brand Emojis - companies have created custom emojis or "branded emojis" for use in social media campaigns. For example, Domino's Pizza 🍕 In 2015, Domino's Pizza launched a social media campaign where customers could order a pizza on Twitter (now X) by tweeting the pizza emoji 🍕 to the official Domino's Twitter account. Read about it here.
  3. AI and Contextual Emojis - with the progress of artificial intelligence, will we see the rise of context-aware emoji suggestions that can comprehend the content and tone of a message and recommend appropriate emojis?
  4. 3D and AR Emojis - with the rise of augmented reality (AR) technology too, will there be more interactive and immersive emoji experiences, such as 3D emojis that can be placed in real-world environments through AR apps?

Embracing the digital lingua franca, one cannot deny the impact these tiny icons have on global communication. Emojis have transformed the way we express ourselves online. Nowadays even in our professional settings. I use the reaction button on Microsoft Outlook to acknowledge an email I have received, instead of having to respond to each email. I feel that is a great addition.

Emojis will undoubtedly continue to evolve, whether you are a sceptic or an enthusiast. I love them - in moderation. Because sometimes a tiny digital icon can be worth a thousand words 😎

Source: Moumita Das Roy, 9 July 2024