Every year on July 17, people around the world celebrate World Emoji Day, a day to recognise the tiny symbols we use every day in messages. This special date was chosen because it’s the one shown on the calendar emoji. In 2025, the event marks its twelfth year of celebration.
Emojis were first created in 1999 by Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita. Since then, they’ve become a major part of how people communicate, with around 10 billion emojis sent daily.
So, what’s the most popular emoji of all time? According to experts at Emojipedia, the number one spot goes to the classic red heart. It’s used to show love, kindness, and support, and is described as the “most beloved of all emojis.”
Coming in second is the loud crying face, often used to show strong emotion. In third place is the fire emoji which people use to say something is amazing, cool, or “on fire” with popularity.
Emojis aren’t just random pictures. Each one is reviewed and approved by a group called the Unicode Consortium. This organisation makes sure emojis work on all devices. Anyone can suggest a new emoji, but only the most useful and widely recognised ideas get added.
The word “emoji” comes from Japanese: e means picture, and moji means character. Even though “emoji” sounds like “emotion,” they’re not directly related. In fact, before emojis, people used emoticons like 🙂 to show feelings using just punctuation marks.
