15 Facts You Never Knew About Emojis

Emojis have become such a massive part of how we communicate it’s hard to imagine life without them. But do we really know where they came from and what they mean? Have you been high-fiving when you should have been thanking someone? Being sassy instead of giving out information? Find out below...

1. Thought this Emoji meant ‘Jazz hands’? Turns out it actually means ‘Hugging’. Who knew?

2. Did you know 17 July is World Emoji Day? Well, it is, and the reason it falls on that date is because it features on the Calendar Emoji, which in turn celebrates the launch of iCal on 17 July 2002.

3. In 2015 ‘Emoji’ was named the fastest-growing language EVER.

4. Last year, the least-used Emojis were the Aerial Tramway Emoji and the Input Symbol for Latin Capital Letters. People had whole Twitter wars about which side they were on, Team Tramway or Team Input.

5. Wikipedia uses Emojis in their URLs. Yeah, we were shook too. 

6. There are now 2823 official Emojis. There are even three actual books written in only Emojis.

7. The sassy lady we all know and love isn’t what you think. Her title is actually ‘Information Desk Person’. She wasn’t flipping her hair all along – she was holding out her hand to help. Cute.

8. The first set of Emojis were originally created in 1999 by Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita and included icons for the weather, traffic, technology and time.

9. The ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ Emoji has been the most used Emoji for 4 years in a row. In 2015, the Oxford English Dictionary named it as their word of the year.

10. The original Emojis are showcased at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

11. We send 60 million Emojis on Facebook each year alone.

12. The word ‘Emoji’ literally means ‘Picture Character’ in Japanese.

13. That ‘High Five’ Emoji was originally a symbol meaning ‘Please’ or ‘Thank you’ in Japanese culture, but now people use it to mean ‘Prayer’ as well.

14. Apple’s first iOS Emojis came out in 2008 and were codesigned by Angela Guzman, who was an intern at the time!

15. You thought she was dancing… nope, she’s saying she’s okay.