Emojis expert tells all: Characters and their alternative meanings

Face with Tears of Joy, Skull, Melting Face, Eyes. Emoji have been called the first language born of the digital world, with over 3,000 "picture characters" available to add emotional nuance to written communication. They first appeared on Japanese mobile phones at the turn of the millennium and are now an everyday part of the way we communicate. Jeremy Burge has been called the "Samuel Johnson of emoji". Ten years ago he founded Emojipedia, an online reference site of emoji characters and their meaning. He was also a member of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee, which is responsible for reviewing requests for new emoji. He currently writes a Mobile Tech Journal and has a popular TikTok channel about living on a narrow boat.