By: Adam Borst

What is an “Emoji?”

The answer to that question is essentially a smiley face that is coded in a way that it shows as an image via the web and mobile. Well you can say it started off as just a smiley face, but nowadays, iPhone’s have hundreds of emoji’s and their own special keyboard.

Where Did the “Emoji” Come From?

The word itself stems from two Japanese words/phrases: “e” standing for “picture” and “moji” standing for “character.” Essentially the word means a picture of a character. Emoji’s first popped onto mobile screens way back in 1997, in Japan. It was not until the 2010’s that they became widely popular in the United States. They are now a huge factor in the way people communicate in the Western part of the world.

The 1990’s

In 1997, the Japanese company, “J-Phone” used the first set of emoji’s on their newest device, the “Skywalker DP-211SW.” In 1999, a man by the name of Shigetaka Kurita, created a emoji set, with it totaling 176 different emoji’s. This is where the evolution from emoticon to emoji transpired, in the 90’s. Many of these early creators credit manga and other various Japanese influences to helping them create the emoji. For example, in manga, sweat pellets on a characters face represents fear or confusion.

The 2000’s

Millions of people were exposed to emoji’s between the years of 2000 and 2004. In that four year span, the introduction of emoji’s via messaging system boomed because of the fact that “smartphones” were now a thing. This popularity, thought to be good for the emoji’s actually tampered their situation in the Western world. Many companies were fighting over the development of the emoji sets, that it led to a failure of a uniform set of emojis across the country. As early as 2004, American and European companies were fighting to introduce their own emojis into their projects. Google introduced the emoji into their G-Mail platform in 2008. Apple followed suit, just a month later, but not in the fashion we see them now.

The 2010’s

Many American’s grew jealous over the fact that the emojis were not apart of their keyboard to use via text. In Japan this was a thing. Therefore, many Americans found out that they could download Japanese apps, and this would give them access to the keyboards. Josh Gare created the application that allows the use of the emoji keyboard on iPhone’s in early 2010. Before this creation, Apple planned on keeping the emoji keyboard strictly in Japan. The use of the emoji skyrocketed into what it is today because of one man, Josh Gare.

Fun Emoji Facts

In 2015, Oxford Dictionaries named “U+1F602” or the “Face with Tears of Joy” as it’s Word of the Year.
In 2018, a mosquito emoji was added to raise awareness for disease spread through the insect.
In 2019, the “Drop of Blood” emoji was added to break the stigma of menstruation.
Emojis like the gun emoji were modified to make them less likely to be used in the wrong way.
Emojis like the gun emoji, the bomb emoji, etc. have been used to incriminate people, as they are viewed as threats.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji#Evolution_from_emoticons_(1990s)

https://www.wired.com/story/guide-emoji/

The History of the "Emoji"