Adrija Sen
July 15, 2022
We use emojis every day to say how we feel, but do we know how these cute and lovable little symbols became such a big part of how we communicate with each other today? Here’s a look into the history of Emojis to celebrate World Emoji Day on July 17th!
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The New York Times is responsible for the first use of an emoticon! Known as the smiling emoji :) – it was most likely a misprint on a transcribed copy of a speech by President Abraham Lincoln in August 1862.
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Soon after, American satirical magazine Puck published a piece on 'Typographical Art' in their March 1881 issue depicting the emotions of joy, melancholy, indifference, and astonishment. Using only typography became the first intentional use of emojis in the world!
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Hundred years later, in September 1982, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon, Scott Fahlman, sent out his suggestions of using 'joke markers' so misunderstandings can be reduced on the university's online bulletin boards. His idea eventually gave rise to modern emoticons.
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Unicode 1.1.0 was released in June 1993 that used characters reminiscent of emoji mainly sourced from the Zapf Dingbats font and used on internal boards online since its release. In May 1997, AIM introduced Buddy Icons: simple icons or images that could convey a feeling, imply an action, or communicate a status mostly through AOL's Instant Messenger.
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Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita created a set of 176 emojis to convey information in a simple way on the mobile platform he worked on. His set of emojis had a preference for symbols, objects, and characters over faces.
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In 2003, Microsoft introduced 30 new emoticons to MSN Messenger 6, thanks to their rising popularity. In 2007, Google launched 79 animated emojis in Gmail to expand its presence in Japan and Asia. In November 2008, Apple introduced their own emojis, but only for SoftBank users in Japan. It was in 2009 that two Apple engineers submitted an official proposal to adopt 625 emoji characters through an app.
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A year later, in 2011, Apple finally gave iOS users direct access to emojis by adding an emoji keyboard to iOS 5 instead of needing a separate app. In 2015 an emoji update introduced skin-tone modifiers with five different skin tones to represent a diverse world population. Later that year, Oxford Dictionaries announced the "face with tears of joy" emoji to be Word of the Year of 2015, marking a shift in how relevant emojis had become!
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After an official submission to Unicode in November 2016, the "Person With Headscarf" or hijab was included to make emojis more inclusive and representative of society. 2017 saw the release of The Emoji Movie, with global box office takings exceeding $200 million. In 2018, Dictionary.com included insightful explanations of how certain emojis are used.
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The following year Unicode released 59 new emojis that focus on inclusivity by emphasising disabilities, gender-neutrality, and different cultural symbols. In 2020, Emojis hit a new cultural prominence by making their debut in the New York Times crossword puzzle. The publication ran purely emoji-based hints, paving the way for future crosswords made up entirely of our beloved modern hieroglyphics.
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In response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, Emojipedia even recommended sequences of emoji that could depict safety measures. Examples include the soap, hands and water drop emojis to indicate washing hands, a train, mask and shopping trolley combo to remind people to wear masks in public; and two people on either side of a double arrow to illustrate social distancing.
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