10 interesting facts about emoji

1. The first (extremely pixelated) emoji were created by Shigetaka Kurita in 1999 for cellphones and pagers. They are now housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
2. In 2011, Apple added an official emoji keyboard to the iOS, increasing their popularity. Android added its version in 2013.
3. Oxford’s 2015 word of the year was not a word at all, in fact it was this emoji.
4. If you are referring to more than one emoji, the pluralization is emoji not emojis.
5. The Unicode Consortium approves all the new emojis that are added every year.
6. You can submit a request for a new emoji (absolutely free), but you have to provide a detailed report on why it’s important to increase the chances that it will be added. This process could take up to two years!
7. The Birthday cake and pizza emoji are the most common food emoji used year-round.
8. In 2015, emoji became diversified with the introduction of multiple skin colours and same-sex couple emoji
9. Researchers have found that when an individual views an emoji, the parts of the brain that become activated are the same as when seeing human facial expressions. This means that emoji play an important role in expression when communicating digitally.
10. There are 230 new emoji entries for 2019.

Even though you may think that emoji are all fun and games, recently many researchers have begun looking at them more closely because of the benefits that they provide. In fact, emoji have been shown to be an effective alternative communication method for those on the Autism Spectrum, are used to help abused children describe their complex emotions and much more.

Watch this TED Talk to learn more about how emoji are changing the world.