World Emoji Day 2024: Know date, history, importance in online conversation

World Emoji Day was created by Jeremy Burge, the founder of Emojipedia, in 2014. July 17 was chosen because the calendar emoji on iOS shows this date, when Apple introduced iCal for Mac in 2002

In the modern digital age, communication is quicker and easier than it has ever been, and emojis are at the centre of this transformation. With more than 90% of online users integrating emojis to communicate their thoughts, these small symbols have turned into a critical part of our online conversation. 

World Emoji Day was founded by Jeremy Burge, the founder of Emojipedia–a comprehensive resource for everything related to emojis, the fundamental components of digital communication. The decision of this date is very clever since this is the date showing on calendar emoji of iOS keypads, which is July 17, making it an apt selection for World Emoji Day.

World Emoji Day: History

The use of emojis in modern digital communication has become ubiquitous. The development of emojis has changed simple text-based messages into expressive exchanges. The journey started during the 1980s with essential text-based emoticons like ":- )" and ":- (." In 1999, a Japanese designer made the first set of emojis for a mobile organization, prompting their worldwide adoption. 

In 2007, a software internationalisation team at Google petitioned the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit organization that keeps up with text standards across computers to recognise emojis. Emojis started acquiring popularity around the world, and in 2011, Apple added an emoji keyboard to iOS, making them available in multiple nations.

World Emoji Day: Importance 

In the time of social media, emojis play a huge part on platforms like Instagram, X (previously Twitter), Facebook, and WhatsApp. They impact our day-to-day routines as well as improve communication by permitting us to communicate sentiments without words. 

Emojis have a cultural effect, conveying different emotions, ideas, and thoughts, with meanings that can differ in view of context and culture. These tiny digital symbols make our language more effective and fun-filled.