Emoji meanings explained and which emoji could appear next on your phone
Text messages and online chats can use a combination of words, images, and emoji to convey a message. Words and images can be easily understood, but deciphering emoji can feel like deciphering a different language.
With over 3,000 emojis, there’s an emoji for almost anything.
A “😃” or “❤️” are easy to understand, but what’s the difference between “😩” and “😭”? Over time, the meanings of emojis have become subjective depending on the context of a message and broader cultural trends.
Which Shaking Smiley Face Should You Use? Is There a Difference Between Each Different Colored Heart? Does the Peach Emoji Actually Mean Fruit? Here’s How to Find Out What All the 3,782 emoji mean.
Read more: 5 Best Emoji Keyboards for Android and iOS
Emojipedia is here to help
Emojipedia is an online encyclopedia of emoji managed by people who research emoji. The site sorts emoji into nine categories, including Smileys, People, Objects, Activity, and more. Each category then divides emoji into further subsections. So, for example, if you click on Smileys, you’ll see sections like Smiling and loving And Sleepy and unwell.
If you click on an individual emoji, Emojipedia will give you a short description of that emoji. For example, here’s what Emojipedia writes about the “😶🌫️” (face in the clouds) emoji:
“A face that appears to be surrounded by clouds or a haze of smoke. Ambiguous in appearance, this can represent a foggy state of mind, confusion, or even a sense of calm bliss. Can also be used to indicate the presence of smoke.”
What’s a text message without an emoji or two?
Emojipedia also gives you a list of other emojis that this particular emoji works well with. In the case of the cloud face emoji, Emojipedia’s suggestions include the “🚬” cigarette and the “🌪️” tornado — there is quite a bit of variation in that.
Each Emojipedia entry also shows you the different artwork for each emoji on different platforms, as well as how the artwork has evolved over time. The emoji entry also shows you shortcodes and other names for each emoji, where applicable.
What are the most popular emojis?
You may have your own go-to emoji, but according to Emojipedia, these are the most popular emojis as of early August. The list changes frequently, so what’s popular now might not be popular next month or around a holiday. Keep in mind that not all platforms support all of the latest emojis, so they may not all appear on your device.
How often are new emoji added?
Everyone can submit an idea for a new emoji. The Unicode Standard — a universal character encoding standard — is responsible for creating new emoji. The most recent batch of emoji was released with Emoji Character 15.1 in September 2023; Apple’s iOS 17.4 was the latest iPhone update to bring new emojis to all users. It included over 100 new emojis, including a lime, a phoenix, and broken chains.
What are the upcoming emoji?
I feel you emoji.
This year, eight new emoji designs have been submitted for approval Emoji Character 16.0Some of the candidates include a paint splatter, a harp, and a smiley with bags under its eyes — which, honestly, are the same thing.
Emoji 16.0 is expected to be approved on September 10.
How about custom emoji, like Apple’s Genmoji?
I bet you can guess what this emoji means.
Apple unveiled its emoji generator, called Genmoji, at WWDC 2024, and it’s expected to be available later this year. If you want to create your own custom emoji now, Emojipedia is now the home of the Emoji Mashup Bot. You can select two emojis from the Twomoji set, and the bot combines them to create a whole new emoji. These new emoji may not have a definition, but some of the combinations are easy to decipher.
And all this just for emoji?
Yes, but wait, there’s more! Emojipedia also hosts the World Emoji Awards on World Emoji Day, July 17. Prizes are given out 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 that was approved the previous year is eligible to win.
Every year new emojis are added and there are even prizes awarded for new emojis.
The winner for the Most Popular New Emoji in 2024 was the shake head horizontally (🙂↔️) followed by the shake head vertically (🙂↕️) and the phoenix (🐦🔥). The winner of the Most anticipated emoji went to the face with bags under the eyes and the Most Emojis of 2024 prize went to the melting face (🫠) for the second year in a row — it still fits.
The sparkles (✨) emoji also got the Lifetime Performance Award in 2024. Emojipedia wrote that this emoji has been one of the most popular emojis since 2015 and has become the default image for AI.
In 2023the most popular emoji was the pink heart emoji (🩷) and the second place was the trembling face (🫨). The most anticipated emoji award in 2023 went to the shake head horizontally (🙂↔️).
For more information, here’s the latest approved emoji, how to reply to messages on your iPhone with emoji, and how to use emoji instead of comments in Google Docs.
