Emojis have become an integral part of how we communicate today. Data from Unicode Consortium shows that 92 per cent of the online population uses emojis. Out of all the emojis available, there is one which was used the most in 2021. It was the ‘tears of joy’ emoji.
Unicode Consortium, the not-for-profit organisation which digitises the world’s language, said in its latest emoji frequency report that ‘tears of joy’ emoji accounts for over 5 per cent of all emoji traffic.
The other emojis that occupied the second to tenth ranks were red heart, rolling on the floor laughing, thumbs up, loudly crying face, folded hands, face blowing a kiss, smiling face with hearts, smiling face with heart-eyes, and smiling face with closed eyes.
While no emoji subcategory is entirely popular or unpopular, there are a few exceptions. Most popular emoji subcategories included face-smiling, plants or flowers, and emotions.
The least popular subcategory is flags. While it has the largest collection in the emoji world with 258 flag emojis, it is also the least used.
Given that new emoji have to demonstrate they are not overly specific and need to break new ground, this suggests animal emoji are at saturation level, Unicode said.
