Three emojis, one with hearts for eyes, one grinning, and one smiling.

POPULARITY CONTEST: The face with tears of joy emoji is the most used emoji in the world. (The red heart ❤️ is No. 2.) Which emoji do you use most often?

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All About Emojis

Whether you 😍 or 😠 emojis, they’re a part of modern life. Here’s how they’re created.

AS YOU READ, THINK ABOUT the steps in the design process used to create an emoji.

Every day, people send billions of emojis to one another via text messages and posts to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. We rely on these tiny images to express what we’re feeling when we can’t see 🙈 or hear 🙉 who we’re chatting with. But where do these cute icons come from 🤔? Next time you send a ❤️ or a 👍, there’s a group of computer scientists you should thank.

A Brief History of Emojis

Watch a video about how emojis developed over time.

The Unicode Consortium is a nonprofit organization made up primarily of people from tech companies such as Apple, Google, and Adobe. It’s tasked with managing the world’s emojis by assigning each a unique alphanumeric code, consisting of letters 🔤 and numbers 🔢. Any smartphone, tablet, or computer 💻 can translate these codes into their corresponding emojis.

Each year, Consortium members meet to review more than 100 proposals for new emojis—about 50 get chosen. The group uses several factors to decide which ones get approved. Emojis must be easily recognizable ✅, likely to be used by many people ✅, and useful for communication ✅. No company logos or depictions of real people are allowed ❌.

The Consortium also tries to add emojis that are diverse and inclusive. In 2015, emojis became available in a range of skin colors 👩🏽‍⚕️ 🙋🏻‍♂️ 👩🏾‍🎓. In 2017, the group approved an emoji depicting a woman wearing a hijab, or head scarf. And this year, a new set of emojis will represent people with disabilities.

Anyone can propose a new emoji—even teens, like you ✊! In fact, a 15-year-old named Rayouf Alhumedhi came up with the idea for the hijab emoji. She sent the idea to Unicode—noting that 550 million Muslim women, like her, wear a head scarf every day. A member of the committee worked with Rayouf to hone her proposal, including coming up with an emoji design. Because of her, an underserved community is now represented digitally around the world 🌍. It turns out a little picture can say a lot! ⚛️

DESIGNING SOLUTIONS: Come up with an idea for a new emoji. Draw its design, and write a short proposal describing how it fits the Unicode Consortium’s criteria.

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