Emojipedia is an

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typed conv ...

reference website which documents the meaning and common usage of emoji characters in the

Unicode Standard Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

. Most commonly described as an emoji encyclopedia or emoji dictionary, Emojipedia also publishes articles and provides tools for tracking new emoji characters, design changes and usage trends. It has been owned by

Zedge Zedge is a content distribution platform. Its content platform enables consumers to personalize their mobile devices with ringtones, wallpapers, home screen app icons, widgets and notification sounds. Amateur and professional artists can launc ...

since 2021. Emojipedia is a voting member of

The Unicode Consortium The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which was developed with the intenti ...

History

Jeremy Burge Jeremy Burge (born 14 July 1984) is an emoji historian, founder of Emojipedia, creator of World Emoji Day and widely regarded as an expert on emoji. Business Insider listed Burge in the ''UK Tech 100'' in 2016, 2017 and 2018 referring to him ...

created Emojipedia in 2013, and told the ''

Hackney Gazette Archant Limited is a newspaper and magazine publishing company headquartered in Norwich, England. The group publishes four daily newspapers, around 50 weekly newspapers, and 80 consumer and contract magazines. Archant employs around 1,250 empl ...

'' "the idea came about when Apple added emojis to

iOS 6 iOS 6 is the sixth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc, being the successor to iOS 5. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11, 2012, and was released on September 19, 20 ...

, but failed to mention which ones were new". Emojipedia rose to prominence with the release of Unicode 7 in 2014, when ''

The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tec ...

'' reported the "online encyclopedia of emojis has been chucked offline after vast numbers of people visited the site" in relation to the downtime experienced by the site at the time. In 2015, Emojipedia entered its first partnership with

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical f ...

to release an app that allowed users access previously-hidden country flag emojis on iOS. Emojipedia told

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

in early-2016 that it served "over 140 million page views" per year, and was profitable. In mid-2016, Emojipedia "urged Apple to rethink its plan to convert the handgun emoji symbol into a water pistol icon" citing cross-platform confusion. In 2017

The Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

launched the Web Cultures Web Archive which featured a history of memes, gifs, and emojis from references including Emojipedia, Boing Boing and GIPHY. ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' reported that the site served 23 million page views in October 2017. Total page views for 2013–2019 were said to have reached one billion by February 2019. ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' reported Emojipedia served 50 million page views in April 2020. In August 2021, Emojipedia was acquired by

for an undisclosed amount. In February 2022, Keith Broni became Emojipedia's

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

, taking over from founder and chief emoji officer

. In July 2022, Emojipedia would add multi-language support for the first time. Initially restricted to Spanish,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, Italian and Portuguese, support for 13 more languages (including

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

's most spoken languages in celebration of

Diwali Diwali (), Dewali, Divali, or Deepavali ( IAST: ''dīpāvalī''), also known as the Festival of Lights, related to Jain Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, Tihar, Swanti, Sohrai, and Bandna, is a religious celebration in Indian religions. It is ...

) would be introduced in October 2022.

News and analysis

In 2016 an Emojipedia analysis showed that the peach emoji is most commonly used to represent

buttocks The buttocks (singular: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed ...

. In 2017, after Google CEO Sundar Pichai pledged to "drop everything" to update Android's burger emoji, Emojipedia revealed the cheese layering issue had been resolved. In 2018 Emojipedia revealed that Apple planned to "fix" its bagel emoji design by adding cream cheese, following user complaints. A 2020 study by Emojipedia found that and were most used to represent

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

. Also in 2020, Emojipedia revealed that Apple's forthcoming iOS update would change the mask-wearing emoji to display a smiling face. In January 2021 Emojipedia reported that had been declared an emoji "for boomers" on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...

, and in March 2021 published analysis showing had become the most used emoji on Twitter.

World Emoji Day

World Emoji Day World Emoji Day is an annual unofficial holiday occurring on 17 July, intended to celebrate emoji; in the years since the earliest observance, it has become a popular date to make product or other announcements and releases relating to emoji. ...

is a holiday created by Emojipedia in 2014 which is held on 17 July each year. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' , 17 July was chosen due to the design of the calendar emoji (on iOS) showing this date. Emojipedia used the second annual World Emoji Day to release EmojiVote as "an experiment in Emoji democracy". In 2017–2020, Apple used this event to preview new emojis for iOS. Emojipedia reveals the winners of the World Emoji Awards each year, with past announcements held live at the New York Stock Exchange and National Museum of Cinema.

Adopt an Emoji

Emojipedia launched ''Adopt an Emoji'' in September 2015 as "an attempt to make the site free of display ads" according to

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

. This preceded a similar program by the

Unicode Consortium The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which was developed with the intentio ...

in December 2015. The Emojipedia "Adopt an Emoji" program was shut down in November 2016, citing confusion for users and advertisers due to the similarity with Unicode's fundraising effort.

Cultural impact

In 2018, Portland Maine's Press Herald reported that Senator Angus King had endorsed a new lobster emoji but Emojipedia's design was called out as "anatomically incorrect" due to an incorrect number of legs. The number of legs on Emojipedia's lobster design was subsequently fixed in a future release.

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

reported this as "a victory for scientists and lobster fans everywhere". Skater

Tony Hawk Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documen ...

criticized Emojipedia's skateboard design as being mid-'80s ... beginner-level' board 'definitely not representative' of the modern sport" and subsequently worked with the company to produce an updated design. On

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

described Emojipedia as "a kind of

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

for your iPhone" when assessing its impact on the English language.

Legal precedent

In 2018, Emojipedia was presented in the

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...

as "a reputable website in telling us how to interpret these faces" by a lawyer for

Geoffrey Rush Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. He is known for his eccentric leading man roles on stage and screen. He is among 24 people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting, having received an Academy Award, a Primetime Emm ...

during a defamation case against Nationwide News. This was in the context of interpreting an emoji sent by Rush to a fellow actor, which Rush described as "the looniest emoji I could find". Rush said he would have used an emoji of

Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...

or The Muppets' Fozzie Bear if they had been available. Reports indicate Rush's lawyer "attempted to hand up to Justice Michael Wigney a printout of the emoji's meaning from Emojipedia" but a barrister for Nationwide News objected, stating it "doesn't matter what Emojipedia says the emoji is". Justice Wigney agreed that an emoji definition "is in the eye of the beholder": inferring the context within the message was more important than the Emojipedia definition. In the 2020 case of Burrows v Houda, the District Court of New South Wales considered the use of emoji and whether it could constitute defamation. Judge Gibson referred to Emojipedia noting its definition of the zipper-mouth emoji to imply "a secret" or "stop talking", "in circumstances where a person impliedly knows the answer but is forbidden or reluctant to answer".

References

External links

* {{Emoji navbox Online encyclopedias Emoji Internet properties established in 2013 American online encyclopedias 2021 mergers and acquisitions