World Emoji Day 📅😀
Celebrate World Emoji Day with the best emojis from every category. Explore the history of emojis and copy the most popular characters from faces, animals, food, and more.
Most Popular Emojis
The most-used emojis worldwide according to usage data.
Best Face Emojis
The most expressive and fun face emojis.
Best Animal Emojis
The cutest and most popular animal emojis.
Best Food & Drink Emojis
The most iconic food and drink emojis.
Emoji Day Text Art & Borders
The History of Emojis
Emojis were born in Japan in 1999 when Shigetaka Kurita created the first set of 176 pictographic characters for NTT DoCoMo's mobile internet platform. The word "emoji" comes from the Japanese e (picture) + moji (character). These tiny 12x12 pixel icons were designed to facilitate electronic communication.
The emoji revolution went global when Apple included an emoji keyboard in iOS in 2011, followed by Android in 2013. The Unicode Consortium now maintains the official emoji standard, with over 3,600 emojis as of 2024. New emojis are proposed and approved through a formal process each year.
World Emoji Day was founded by Jeremy Burge, creator of Emojipedia, in 2014. July 17th was chosen because it is the date displayed on the calendar emoji 📅 in Apple's design. Today, over 10 billion emojis are sent daily across all platforms, making them one of the most universal forms of digital communication.