What is this smiley? Your guide to decoding all emojis

Text messages and online chats can include a combination of words, images, and emojis to get the message across. Words and images may be easy to understand, but when someone sends emojis, it can feel like you’re decoding a secret message.

It’s easy to understand “😃” or “❤️”, but what’s the difference between “😩” and “😭”? Over time, emoji meanings have become subjective depending on the context of the message and broader cultural trends.

Which shaking smiley face should you use? Is there a difference between each different colored heart? Has the peach symbol really come to mean fruit? Here’s how to find out everything 3,790 What emojis mean and what emojis could be next.

Read more: We could get a Sasquatch Emoji soon

Emojipedia is here to help

Emoji It is an electronic encyclopedia of emojis Run by people looking for emojis. The site categorizes emojis into nine categories, including smileys, people, objects, activities, and more. Each category then divides the emoji into further subsections. So, if you click on the smileys, for example, you’ll see sections like Smiling & affectionate and Drowsy 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 “😶‍🌫️” (Face in the clouds) Emojis:

“A face that appears surrounded by clouds or a haze of smoke. Fuzzy in appearance. This may represent a foggy state of mind, confusion, or even a feeling of calm and bliss. It can also be used to indicate the presence of smoke.”

Emojipedia will also give you a list of other emojis that this emoji works well with. In the case of the face-in-the-cloud emoji, Emojipedia’s suggestions include the symbol “🚬” cigarette and “🌪️” tornado – Big group there.

Each Emojipedia entry also shows you the different artwork for each emoji across platforms, as well as how the artwork has evolved over time. Entering emoji will also show you short codes and other names for each emoji, if applicable.

What are the most popular emojis?

You may have your own emoji, but according to Emojipedia, these are the most popular emoji as of early January. The menu changes regularly, so what’s popular now may not be popular next month or around the holiday. Note that not all platforms support all of the latest emoji, so not all of them may appear on your device.

What are the latest emojis?

In September, Google unveils Emoji 16.0which includes eight new emojis. The new emojis are A Paint stains, Harp, fingerprint, Root vegetables, Tree without leaves, shovelthe Flag of the small island of Sark (Population: 500) and A A tired looking emoji with bags under his eyes – Honestly, the same thing.

It may take a while before you see these emojis in texts. Google wrote online in July The new emojis will be available on Android devices in March of this year. iPhone users likely won’t see these emojis until then, either. while Unicode has released its version 15.1 With new emojis in September 2023, those emojis didn’t arrive on iPhones until Apple’s version iOS 17.4 In March 2024. So iPhone users will probably have to wait until March 2025 to get the latest emoji. You may see the latest emoji online as a web font now.

How often are new emojis added?

Anyone can Submit an idea To get new emojis. the Unicode standard – A global character encoding standard – Responsible for creating new emojis. Unicode proposed nine new emojis on November 6, including Sasquatch and Orca. However, these are just suggested emojis. Unicode will decide in September which emoji will be added next.

What about custom emojis, like Apple’s Genmoji?

Apple unveiled its own emoji generator, Jinmojiat WWDC 2024, the tech giant included this feature in iOS 18.2. However, only people who have iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max Or device from iPhone 16 lineup He has access to Genmoji at the moment.

If you can’t use Genmoji and want to create your own custom emoji, Emojipedia is now home Emoji mashup bot. You can select two emojis from Tomoji selected, and the bot will combine them to create a completely new emoji. These new emojis may not have a definition, but some combinations can be easily deciphered.

All this just for emojis?

Yes, but wait there’s more! Emojipedia also hosts World Emoji Awards On World Emoji Day, July 17. Awards are given for things like the most popular new emoji and the most anticipated emoji. Winners are determined by popular vote Xformerly known as Twitter, and any emoji approved in the previous year is eligible to win.

winner for The most popular new emojis in 2024 He was Shake head horizontally (🙂‍↔️) followed by Shake head vertically (🙂‍↕️) And phoenix (🐦‍🔥). Winner in Most awaited emoji He went to face with bags under his eyes and Most emoji 2024 The award went to Melting face (🫠) For the second year in a row — still relevant.

the Sparkle (✨) Emojis were also awarded Lifetime Achievement Award In 2024. Emojipedia wrote that this emoji has been among the most popular emojis since 2015, and has been certified as a favorite image for artificial intelligence.

in 2023The most popular emoji was Pink heart The emoji (🩷) was in second place Face shaking (🫨). The award for most anticipated emoji of 2023 went to Shake head horizontally (🙂‍↔️).

For more, here Latest supported emojis, How to reply to messages with emojis on your iPhone and How to use emojis instead of comments in Google Docs.