Everyone has their favourite emoji and this has made emojis go beyond being a simple way to communicate to a fully-fledged culture.

Every year as we celebrate World Emoji Day, new emojis are introduced, this year’s new emojis are a pregnant man, a multiracial handshake and a face that cannot bear to watch.

The new emojis association’s drive is to offer masculine, feminine and gender-neutral versions of every available emoji.

While emojis can capture a myriad of emotions with one image, many emojis have been misinterpreted from their original meanings, most people, especially young people, are getting familiar with emojis mostly while using Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and WhatsApp.

The history of emojis

The origin of the word ’emoji’ is Japanese, where it translates to "picture character.” But long before the emojis, however, there was the emoticon.

The first creation of emoji we know and use today was created by Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita in 1999. He only had 144 pixels or picture elements to use to make his original sketches. He said in an interview that he created the emoji to create an efficient flow of information for those working at a telecommunications company in Japan, creating 176 designs in the process.

At first, the emoji only circulated in Japan not until other media competitors created emoji for their own use. It wasn’t until the late 2000s when companies like Apple and Google saw the role that emojis could play.

Classic emojis like crying with joy, red heart and thumbs-up typically rank among the most used on Twitter. There is no way to measure what emojis are most widely used over texts. However, every July 17, Emojipedia announces the World Emoji Awards and gives them the emoji from the latest update with the most page visits on the blog’s site.

 Emojis can capture a myriad of emotions with one image, many emojis have been misinterpreted from their original meanings. With emojis originating from Japan, some don’t always translate. What many people know as the praying emoji, or even less commonly the high-five emoji, is actually neither. The actual meaning behind the emoji is supposed to represent the thank-you gesture in Japanese culture.