Emoji Meanings Explained and New Emojis That Could Be Coming to Your Phone Soon

Text messages and online conversations can include a combination of words, images, and emojis to convey a message. Words and images can be easily understood, but deciphering emojis can feel like decoding another language.

A “😃” or “❤️” are easy to understand, but what’s the difference between “😩” and “😭”? Over time, the meaning of emojis has become subjective, depending on the context of the message and broader cultural trends.

Which shaking smiley face should you use? Is there a difference between each heart color? Does the peach emoji still actually mean a fruit? Here’s how to figure out what all 3,782 emojis mean and what might be next.

Learn more: Top 5 Emoji Keyboards for Android and iOS

Emojipedia is here to help you

Emojipedia is an online encyclopedia of emojis maintained by people who research emoji. The site categorizes emojis into nine categories, including smileys, people, objects, activities, and more. Each category then breaks down the emojis into additional subsections. So if you click on Smileys, for example, you’ll see sections like Smiling and affectionate And Sleepy and sick.

If you click on an individual emoji, Emojipedia will give you a brief description of that emoji. For example, here’s what Emojipedia says about the “😶‍🌫️” (face in clouds) emoji:

“A face that appears surrounded by clouds or a haze of smoke. Ambiguous in appearance, this can represent a foggy state of mind, confusion, or even a feeling of calm and bliss. Can also be used to indicate the presence of smoke.”

Emojipedia will also provide you with a list of other emojis that this particular emoji works well with. In the case of the face in the clouds emoji, Emojipedia’s suggestions include the cigarette “🚬” and the tornado “🌪️” — quite a range.

Each Emojipedia entry also shows you the different illustrations of each emoji on different platforms, as well as how the illustration has evolved over time. The emoji entry will also show you the shortcodes and alternate names for each emoji, if applicable.

What are the most popular emoji?

You may have your own favorite emoji, but according to Emojipedia, here are the most popular emoji as of early September. The list changes periodically, so what’s popular today may not be popular next month or when a holiday approaches. Note that not all platforms support all of the latest emoji, so they may not all appear on your device.

How often are new emojis added?

Anyone can submit an idea for a new emoji. The Unicode standard, a universal character encoding standard, is responsible for creating new emoji. The most recent batch of emojis was released with Emoji 15.1 in September 2023; Apple’s iOS 17.4 was the latest. iPhone Updated to bring new emojis to all users. It includes over 100 new emojis, including a lime, a phoenix, and broken chains.

What emoji are coming?

This year, eight new emoji designs were submitted for approval for Emoji 16.0. Among the candidates are a paint splatter, a harp, and a smiley with dark circles under its eyes, which, honestly, are identical.

Emoji 16.0 approval is scheduled for September 10.

What about custom emojis, like Apple’s Genmoji?

Apple unveiled its emoji generator, called Genmoji, at WWDC 2024, and it’s expected to be available later this year. If you want to create your own custom emoji right now, Emojipedia is now home to the Emoji Mashup bot. You can select two emojis from the Twemoji set, and the bot will combine them to create a brand new emoji. These new emojis may not have a definition, but some of the combinations are easy to decipher.

All this just for emoji?

Yes, but wait, there’s more! Emojipedia also hosts the World Emoji Awards on World Emoji Day, July 17. Prizes are awarded for things like the most popular new emoji and the most anticipated emoji. Winners are determined by popular vote on X, formerly known as Twitter, and any emoji approved in the previous year is eligible to win.

The winner of the Most Popular New Emoji of 2024 award is the Horizontally Shaking Head (🙂‍↔️), followed by the Vertically Shaking Head (🙂‍↕️) and the Phoenix (🐦‍🔥). The Most Anticipated Emoji winner is the Face with Eye Bags, and the Most Popular Emoji of 2024 award went to the Melting Face (🫠) for the second year in a row — it still fits the bill.

The sparkle emoji (✨) also received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024. Emojipedia wrote that this emoji has been among the most popular emojis since 2015 and has been adopted as a reference image for AI.

In 2023, the most popular emoji was the pink heart emoji (🩷) and the second was the shaking face emoji (🫨). The award for the most anticipated emoji in 2023 went to the horizontally shaking head emoji (🙂‍↔️).

For more, here are the latest emoji approvals, how to react to messages with emoji on your iPhone, and how to use emoji instead of comments in Google Docs.