What's That Emoji? How to Decipher The Wacky World of Smileys and More

Text messages and chats online can include a combination of words, pictures and emoji to convey a message. Words and pictures can be easily understood, but deciphering emoji might feel like decoding another language. 

A “😃” or “❤️” are easy to understand, but how are “😩” and “😭” different? Over time, emoji meanings have become subjective depending on a message’s context and wider cultural trends. 

Which shaking smiley face should you use? Is there a difference between each different colored heart? Does the peach emoji actually mean fruit anymore? Here’s how to figure out what all 3,790 emoji mean and what emoji could be next. 

Read more: We Could Get a Sasquatch Emoji Soon

Emojipedia is here to help

Emojipedia is an online encyclopedia of emoji managed by people who research emoji. The site sorts emoji into nine categories, including Smileys, People, Objects, Activity and more. Each category then breaks down emoji into further subsections. So if you click into Smileys, for example, you’ll see sections like Smiling & Affectionate and Sleepy & Unwell.

If you click an individual emoji, Emojipedia will give you a brief description of that emoji. For example, here’s what Emojipedia writes about the  “😶‍🌫️” (face in clouds) emoji: 

“A face that appears surrounded by clouds or a haze of smoke. Ambiguous in appearance, this may represent a foggy state of mind, confusion, or even a sense of calm bliss. May also be used to indicate the presence of smoke.”

Emojipedia will also give you a list of other emoji that this particular emoji works well with. In the case of the face in clouds emoji, Emojipedia’s suggestions include the “🚬” cigarette and the “🌪️” tornado — quite a range there. 

Each Emojipedia entry also shows you the different artwork for each emoji across platforms, as well as how the artwork evolved throughout time. The emoji entry will also show you shortcodes and other names for each emoji, if applicable.

What are the most popular emoji?

You may have your own go-to emoji, but according to Emojipedia, these are the most popular emoji as of the second-half of November. The list changes periodically, so what’s popular now might not be popular next month or around a holiday. Note that not all platforms support all the latest emoji, so they may not all appear on your device.

What are the latest emoji?

In September, Google officially unveiled Emoji 16.0, which includes eight new emoji. The new emoji are a paint splatter, harp, fingerprint, root vegetable, leafless tree, shovel, the Sark flag and a tired-looking emoji with bags under its eyes — honestly same.

It might be a while before you see these emoji in texts, though. Google wrote online in July that new emoji would be available on Android devices in March of 2025. iPhone users likely won’t see these emoji until then, too. While Unicode released its version 15.1 with new emoji in September of 2023, those emoji didn’t land on iPhones until Apple released iOS 17.4 in March, 2024. So iPhone users will probably have to wait until March, 2025 for the latest emoji. But you might see the latest emoji online as a web font now.

How often are new emoji added?

Anyone can submit an idea for a new emoji. The Unicode Standard — a universal character encoding standard — is responsible for creating new emoji. Unicode proposed nine new emoji on Nov. 6, including a Sasquatch and an orca. However, those are just proposed emoji. Unicode will decide in September which emoji to add next. 

What about custom emoji, like Apple’s Genmoji?

Apple unveiled its emoji generator, called Genmoji, at WWDC 2024, and it’s expected to be available later this year. If you want to create your own custom emoji now, Emojipedia is now the home of the Emoji Mashup Bot. You can select two emoji from the Twemoji set, and the bot combines them to create a whole new emoji. These new emoji may not have a definition, but some combinations are easily decipherable.

All this just for emoji?

Yeah, but wait there’s more! Emojipedia also hosts the World Emoji Awards on World Emoji Day, July 17. Awards are given for things like Most Popular New Emoji and Most Anticipated Emoji. Winners are determined by popular vote on X, formerly known as Twitter, and any emoji approved the year prior is eligible to win. 

The winner for the Most Popular New Emoji in 2024 was the head shaking horizontally (🙂‍↔️) followed by the head shaking vertically (🙂‍↕️) and the phoenix (🐦‍🔥). The winner of the Most Anticipated Emoji went to the face with bags under its eyes and the Most 2024 Emoji award went to the melting face (🫠) for the second year in a row — it still fits.

The sparkles (✨) emoji was also given the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024. Emojipedia wrote that this emoji has been among the most popular emoji since 2015, and it’s been adopted as the go-to image for AI.

In 2023, the most popular emoji was the pink heart emoji (🩷) and the runner-up was the shaking face (🫨). The most anticipated emoji award in 2023 went to the head shaking horizontally (🙂‍↔️).

For more, here are the latest approved emoji, how to react to messages with emoji on your iPhone and how to use emoji instead of comments in Google Docs.