Emojis

About

Emojis are graphical images based on emoticons. Sometimes appearing as cartoon faces, sometimes pictures of objects, they are used to express emotion or stand in for words in a text message.

Origin

Emojis first appeared in Japan in 2008. Emoji were initially built into iPhone firmware 2.2, released in November 2008, but were only meant to be show up for users on the Softbank network in Japan. Five days after it was released, a guide^[1] was published on how to make the Emoji keyboard appear on jailbroken iPhones in all countries. In December, a guide on how to unlock Emoji on a normal iPhone appeared online.^[2]

Spread

Apps revealing the Emoji began appearing in the iTunes Store before Apple issued a takedown order in February 2009^[3], removing any app limited to enabling the Emoji keyboard. However, as of September 2012, there are 13 apps^[4], both paid and free, that will unlock Emoji keyboards in the iTunes Store.

The earliest entry for emoji on Urban Dictionary^[13] that recognizes the term to refer to something different than an emoticon was entered by user le anime nerd on July 5th, 2013 and defines the term as, “the tiny pictures you can put on your texts.”

Many specific emoji collections are available to download from iTunes. For Example, a Christian themed package called “Holy Emojis” and a Harry Potter themed package became available for download in December.^[14]^[15]

EmojiTracker^[11] was created on July 4,^[12] to track the increased use of emojis on Twitter.

Related Memes

Song Lyrics Told Through Emojis

The Tumblr blog emojilyrics,^[6] which features the lyrics of pop songs explained through emoji filled texts, uploaded its first screenshot on December 4th, 2011. A similar Tumblr, emojisinging,^[7] was created in 2012. A Buzzfeed Community post titled, “23 Famous Movies And Songs Reenacted In Emojis”,^[8] which collected popular examples, was published on February 5, 2013.

Movie Plots Told Through Emojis

The Tumblr blog emojiplot,^[9] which features screenshots of texts that explain the plots of popular movies through emojis, uploaded its first screenshot on December 9th, 2011. The popularity of movie plots told through emojis spiked after Fail Blog^[5] posted an emoji summary of the plot of the recent film adaptation of Les Miserables on January 3rd, 2013. On January 11th entertainment website Uproxx^[10] published a post titled, “Can You Identify These 8 Movies From Their Emoji Plots?”, which collected some of the most popular Emoji explanations.

Human Emoticons

On January 4th, 2014, Innocence en Danger, a child advocacy group based in France, posted images from a campaign featuring “human emojis.”^[16] The campaign is meant to illustrate the threat pedophiles pose online. Several American based websites such as Buzzfeed^[17] and Bustle ^[18] covered the campaign on January 17th.

New York Emoji Art & Design Show

In December 2013, New York City’s digital art collective Eyebeam announced an art and design show dedicated to the medium of Emojis, featuring original works in a wide range of mediums from digital prints and sculptures to video and performance art presented by 23 artists. The exhibition will be on display at the Eyebeam Art+Technology Center in Chelsea, Manhattan from December 12th to December 14th.