Emoji

Let's explore a variety of emoji lists and input methods.

Emoji originated from Japanese mobile text messages and are now supported on most smartphones. Unlike emoticons used in regular text systems, emojis are special pictorial characters.

When used correctly, emojis can enhance articles, posts, feeds, or comments written by the author, but you should be cautious since emojis may not appear the same across all environments. Although they have the same general meaning across platforms like Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android, there are slight differences in how they are displayed. Emoji appearance also varies depending on the browser type. Windows officially started supporting emojis from version 8.1.

It's said that the first emoji was created in 1999 by NTT Docomo employee 'Shigetaka Kurita'. Although Apple first introduced emojis in English-speaking countries, the origin of emojis is Japan, and you can often observe Japanese language or culture in them. For example, 'U+1F38C Crossed Flag' has a neutral name, but its specific designation is 'Japanese National Holiday.' In countries with historical conflicts with Japan, like Korea, certain companies (e.g., Samsung) have modified these emojis in their devices.

In 2014, Apple and Google introduced a system allowing users to select the skin tone of emojis to respect diversity. As of 2020, the most popular emoji in the world is '😂', followed by '❤️' and '😍'. (Source: Emojipedia)

Text-based emoticons struggle to convey detailed emotions, objects, or animals without creating ASCII art. If a device doesn't support special characters, emoticons may not display correctly. However, emojis are pictograms and part of the standard, making it easier to overcome language barriers. Although not yet perfect, emojis are gradually becoming a communication standard.