Emoji are small digital icons or symbols used to express emotions, concepts, objects, and more within digital conversations.
The word “ emoji ” comes from the combination of the Japanese words “ e ” (picture) and “ moji ” (character).
Emojis have become extremely popular due to their widespread use on social media, in chats, in emails, and in other forms of digital communication.
The history of emojis dates back to the 1990s in Japan , when Shigetaka Kurita , an employee of the telecommunications company NTT DoCoMo, created a set of 176 small images to allow users to express emotions and concepts in a more visual way, even via text messages.
These early Emoji sets included smiley faces, weather symbols, activity signs, and more.
Emoji first gained popularity in Japan bulgaria number data and later spread globally, with the increase in use of cell phones and social media.
In 2010 , Emoji were standardized by the Unicode Consortium , allowing for greater interoperability across different devices and digital platforms.
Since then, new ones have been added regularly, to reflect cultural diversity and new trends, until the number has grown to more than 3600.
Emoji or Emoticon?
They are both used to express emotions and concepts in digital communications, but there are some important differences between the two.
Emoticons are composed of a sequence of alphanumeric characters, such as for a smile or for a sad expression (and similar variations). They have been used since the dawn of the Internet and online chat as a form of visual communication, in which combinations of symbols and letters represent human faces or expressions.
Emojis are small predefined images or symbols that represent a wide range of emotions, objects, animals and more. They are digital graphics that can be inserted directly into the text of the communication.
So, while Emoticons are composed of alphanumeric characters, Emojis are small graphic images. Both are used to express emotions in digital communications, but Emojis offer greater variety and possibilities for expression.