Emoji

communication · digital · creative expression · symbols

Pictures with feelings. Emoji are small digital pictures that you put into your texts, emails, and chats to show emotions like happiness, sadness, or silliness. They help people understand how you really feel when you're typing, since you can't hear your voice or see your face on a screen.

A Japanese invention. Emoji started in Japan in the 1990s, where artists created tiny pictures to make digital messages more fun and expressive. The word 'emoji' comes from Japanese and means 'picture character'.

From phones to everywhere. What began on Japanese mobile phones spread around the world and is now used on every platform, from text messages to social media to emails. Today, there are thousands of different emoji to choose from.

Words in pictures. Emoji can actually replace words in a sentence, like how a heart emoji (❤️) means 'love' or a fire emoji (🔥) can mean something is cool or hot. They're like a fast, fun language that works across different countries and languages.

Still changing and growing. New emoji are added every year to keep up with what people want to say, like emojis for new technology, different skin tones, and different kinds of families. Unicode, the organization in charge, decides which ones get added next.