Text messages and online chats can include a combination of words, images, and emoji to convey a message. Words and pictures may be easy to understand, but when someone sends emoji, you might feel like you’re decoding a secret message.
A “😃” or a “❤️” are easy to understand, but how are “😩” and “😭” different? Over time, the meaning of emoji has become subjective based on the context of the message and broader cultural trends.
With over 3,000 emoji, there’s one for almost everything.
Which trembling smiley face should you use? Is there a difference between each different colored heart? Does the peach emoji actually still mean fruit? Here’s how to understand what all 3,790 Emoji meanings and which emoji could be next.
Learn more: We might soon get a Sasquatch Emoji
Emojipedia is here to help you
Emojipedia is an online emoji encyclopedia run by people who are looking for emoji. The site classifies emoji into nine categories, including smileys, people, objects, activity and more. Each category then breaks down the emoji into additional subsections. So if you click on Smileys, for example, you’ll see sections like Smiling & Affectionate And Sleepy and sick.
If you click on an individual emoji, Emojipedia will give you a brief description of that emoji. For example, here’s what Emojipedia writes about “😶🌫️” (face in the clouds) emoji:
“A face that appears surrounded by clouds or a haze of smoke. Ambiguous in appearance, this may represent a foggy state of mind, confusion, or even a feeling of calm happiness. May also be used to indicate the presence of smoke.”
Emojipedia will also give you a list of other emoji that this particular emoji works well with. In the case of the face in the clouds emoji, Emojipedia’s suggestions include “🚬” cigarette and the “🌪️” tornado — quite a range there.
What’s a text message without an emoji or two?
Each Emojipedia entry also shows you the different illustrations of each emoji across platforms, as well as how the illustrations have evolved over time. The emoji entry will also show you shortcodes and other names for each emoji, if applicable.
What are the most popular emoji?
You may have your own favorite emoji, but according to Emojipedia, these were the most popular emoji as of early January. The list changes periodically, so what’s popular now may not be popular next month or on a holiday. Note that not all platforms support all of the latest emoji, so they may not all appear on your device.
What are the latest emojis?
In September, Google revealed Emoji 16.0which includes eight new emoji. The new emoji are a paint splashes, harp, fingerprint, root vegetable, leafless tree, shovelTHE flag of the small island of Sark (population: 500) and a tired emoji with bags under the eyes — honestly, same.
However, it might be a while before you see these emoji in texts. Google wrote online in July This new emoji would be available on Android devices in March this year. iPhone users probably won’t see these emoji until then either. While Unicode released its version 15.1 with new emoji in September 2023, these emoji didn’t land on iPhones until Apple released iOS 17.4 in March 2024. So iPhone users will likely have to wait until March 2025 to get the latest emoji. Now you can see the latest emoji online as a web font.
How often are new emoji added?
Anyone can submit an idea for a new emoji. THE Unicode standard — a universal character encoding standard — is responsible for creating new emoji. Unicode introduced nine new emoji on November 6, including a Sasquatch and an orca. However, these are just emoji offered. Unicode will decide in September which emoji to add next.
What about custom emoji, like Apple’s Genmoji?
I bet you could guess what this emoji means.
Apple unveiled its emoji generator, Genmojiat WWDC 2024, and the tech giant included the feature in iOS 18.2. However, only people with an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max or an iPhone 16 series device can access Genmoji at the moment.
If you can’t use Genmoji and want to create your own custom emoji, Emojipedia is now the home of Emoji mashup bot. You can select two emoji in the Twemoji defined, and the bot will combine them to create a brand new emoji. These new emoji may not have a definition, but some combinations are easily decipherable.
All this just for the emoji?
Yeah, but wait, there’s more! Emojipedia also hosts the Global Emoji Prices on World Emoji Day, July 17. Awards are given for things like Most Popular New Emoji and Most Anticipated Emoji. Winners are determined by popular vote on X, formerly known as Twitter, and any emoji approved in the previous year is eligible to win.
New emoji are added every year and awards are even given for new emoji.
The winner for the New Most Popular Emoji in 2024 was the head shaking horizontally (🙂↔️) followed by head shaking vertically (🙂↕️) and the phoenix (🐦🔥). The winner of Most anticipated emoji went to the face with bags under the eyes and the Most Emoji 2024 the prize was awarded to melting face (🫠) for the second year in a row — it still fits.
THE sparkles (✨) emoji also received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024. Emojipedia wrote that this emoji has been one of the most popular emoji since 2015 and has been adopted as the go-to image for AI.
In 2023the most popular emoji was pink heart emoji (🩷) and the runner-up was trembling face (🫨). The most anticipated emoji award in 2023 went to head shaking horizontally (🙂↔️).
For more, here are the latest approved emoji, how to react to messages with emoji on your iPhone, and how to use emoji instead of comments in Google Docs.
