World Emoji Day highlights include past emoji trends and new additions

Emoji Kitchen for Slack on Android
(Image credit: Jay Bonggolto / Android Central)

What you need to know

  • July 17, 2023, marks the 10th annual World Emoji Day.
  • Emojipedia has published various stats about emoji use over the years.
  • Emoji 15.1 is set for approval in September, with several different candidates awaiting approval.

Emoji use continues to grow each year, and since July 17 is World Emoji Day, Emojipedia is taking a look at the most popular emoji through the years and showcasing some of the upcoming additions we can expect later this year.

Emojipedia is essentially the go-to place for all things emoji, and the site has compiled some interesting stats on emoji use over the past 10 years since World Emoji Day began.

According to the site, global emoji use has increased, at least when measured on Twitter. While only 4% of tweets included at least one emoji in 2013, that number has increased to 26% of tweets in 2023. If these stats are anything to go by, emoji use has likely increased on other platforms and apps as well.

Emojipedia also highlights Telegram's animated emoji stickers, which now includes over 600 designs. And of course, Gboard users can also take advantage of fun emoji kitchen mashups, with new ones being added on a fairly frequent basis.

And as far as the most popular emoji goes, that title belongs to the 😂 Face with Tears of Joy, followed by the 🤣Rolling on the Floor Laughing, the ❤️ Red Heart, 🙏 Folding Hands, and the 😭 Loudly Crying face.

You can also check out which emoji won the Lifetime Achievement award for 2023 as well as the top favorites among the latest additions, the most anticipated additions. and which emoji best represents 2023 so far.

(Image credit: Emojipedia)

In addition to looking at the various emoji trends over the years, Emojipedia also presents us with samples of new emoji candidates set to be approved later this year. As part of Emoji 15.1, it will include two shaking heads, a phoenix, a lime, a mushroom, a broken chain, and gender-neutral family silhouettes.

There are also a number of direction-specific emoji that will be added to existing people emoji, which should add more variety to the mix.

(Image credit: Emojipedia)

Emojipedia notes that the emoji are subject to change ahead of their approval in September, while each vendor will likely develop their own styles for the new emoji, even across different Android phones. There's also a possibility that not all emoji in the draft list will be approved for Emoji 15.1.

Once approved, we should expect to see the new emoji show up on phones and apps in late 2023 and throughout 2024. And if the Emoji 15.1 rollout is anything to go by, Samsung could be among the first to gain support for the new emoji.

Derrek Lee
News Editor

Derrek is a long-time Nokia and LG fanboy who loves astronomy, videography, and sci-fi movies. When he's not working, he's most likely working out or smoldering at the camera.