Emojipedia is expected to launch 117 new emojis on Friday to mark World Emoji Day which is celebrated annually on the 17th of July.
Local expert Dean McCoubrey, and founder of MySociaLife, one of South Africa's leading social media and online safety programs, said these would have a bigger focus on gender inclusivity.
He said the new emojis were inspired by social issues and could see the inclusion of the transgender icon and the (protest) placard.
McCoubrey said emojis were a universal language that everybody could understand.
Last year, WorldEmojiDay hashtag generated over 4 billion Twitter impressions.
Coronavirus emojis:
A sample of nearly 50,000 tweets from early March 2020, analysed by Emojipedia, revealed that the top emojis most strongly associated with COVID-19 were: Microbe ????: 42%, and Face wearing the medical mask ???? 36%.
World Emoji Day Facts:
Last year, Apple launched new emojis to its visual language including a waffle, flamingo, and sloth and 65 new emojis were announced to be released on Android.
Fun Facebook facts:
???? Over 900M emojis are sent every day without text on Facebook Messenger
???? More than 700M emojis are used in Facebook posts every day
???? The biggest day for emoji usage on Messenger is New Year’s Eve.
Fun Twitter fact:
???? The most used emoji on Twitter is ???? Face With Tears of Joy with over 2,000,000,000 (two billion) uses according to Emojitracker.
???? 86% of emoji users on Twitter are 24 or younger
???????? 57% of emoji users on Twitter are Women
Apple:
Top 5 emojis sent on iOS are: ???? ?? ???? ???? ????
Tips for parents
McCoubrey suggests parents "do their due diligence" too. There are few mysterious double meaning to know of - an eggplant emoji ???? doesn’t necessarily mean that your child is a fan of aubergines, the shapely ???? is less about fruit and more about your curves, while the rather immature hand gestures of ???????? need little explanation.
