Aloha Everyone,
The word emoji means pictograph. Emoji originated from Japanese words "e" (絵, "picture") + moji (文字, "character").
The first emoji was created in 1998 or 1999 in Japan by Shigetaka Kurita who was part of the team working on NTT DiCoMo's I-mode mobile internet platform.
Since international inclusion in Apple iPhone, then Android and other mobile operating systems, emoji have become popular worldwide.
In total there are 2,666 emojis in the Unicode Standard as of May 2017.
The most popular emojis on Emojipedia in 2016 were:
Face With Tears of Joy
️ Red Heart
Smiling Face With Heart-Eyes
Thinking Face
Smiling Face With Smiling Eyes
Fire
Face Blowing a Kiss
Face With Rolling Eyes
While I occasionally include emoji in my text messages, I am not convinced about watching The Emoji Movie on a big screen.
Aloha -- Cathi