A Brief History of the Emoji
- Danielle Mundy
- 4 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Humanity has spent thousands of years trying to communicate more clearly.
But sometimes, the best answer is a little picture that says what words still can’t.
Why Emojis Matter
Emojis may seem like a small part of modern communication, but they do a lot of work.
Literally.
Emojis have become so prevalent that they’re showing up everywhere.
Including the workplace.
In a world of quick texts, emails, and messages, emojis often act as tone indicators. A 👍 can acknowledge a message. A 😊 can make a thank-you feel warmer. A 🚨 can make an urgent update stand out.
Of course, emojis don’t always translate perfectly.
The same symbol can feel friendly to one person and confusing or sarcastic to another.
That’s what makes emojis and their history worth understanding.
Emojis are a part of day-to-day digital communication, and like any communication tool, they work best when people know what they mean.
The History of the Emoji Begins in Japan
Early emoji history gets a little complicated because the first emoji set is still debated.
In 1997, SoftBank released a 90-character emoji set in Japan. But the most well-known early emoji set was created by Shigetaka Kurita in 1999.
Kurita created 176 brightly colored emojis for NTT DOCOMO, a Japanese mobile phone company.
Kurita drew inspiration from artistic conventions in Japanese manga and anime, Chinese characters, and street and weather pictograms.
Many general-use emojis, like actions and weather, can be traced back to Kurita.
But What About Emoticons?
Emoticons are an integral part of the history of the emoji.
These are the text-based faces people make with punctuation, like :-) and :-(.
Fun, but a little hard to look at without tilting your head.
In 1982, computer scientist Scott Fahlman suggested using emoticons to help people tell whether someone was joking or being sarcastic.
The Transition to Emojis
Kurita’s emojis took that same idea and made it colorful.
Now, instead of needing to type out, “It’s raining, I’m late, and I’m sorry,” you can send something like this: ⛈️🙋🌙😩
It’s a toss-up of whether someone will understand you, but you get the picture. 😉
What Was the First Emoji Ever Made?
You may be asking, “What was the first emoji ever made?”
According to Paul Galloway, architecture and design specialist at the Museum of Modern Art, the first emoji was a heart.
Japan’s Culture Can Be Seen in the History of the Emoji
Japanese culture has played a major role in the history of the emoji.
Take the 👺 emoji, for example.
Referred to as the “Goblin Emoji” on Emojipedia, it’s used in conversation to denote anger or mischievous behavior.
However, this emoji represents a Tengu in Japanese culture, a supernatural creature meant to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune.
Other similar instances include the white flower emoji 💮 and the yes gesture emoji 🙆♀️.
The white flower emoji represents a “good job” stamp that Japanese teachers apply to excellent student work, and the yes gesture emoji, with a person forming a circle above their head with their arms, represents OK in Japan.
How Emojis Became a Worldwide Phenomenon
Emoji began spreading globally in the 2010s after they were added to Unicode, the world standard that ensures text and symbols appear consistently across devices and platforms.
And once Apple added an emoji keyboard to iOS, they were everywhere.
By 2015, emojis had become so culturally significant that Oxford Dictionaries named the 😂 “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji its Word of the Year.
The History of the Emoji and the Future of Digital Language
Emojis have an interesting origin story, just like many other everyday tech words.
The history of the emoji demonstrates how digital language continues to evolve, especially as people look for faster and more expressive ways to communicate online.
There are currently 3,953 emojis in the Unicode Standard, which means humanity has officially created thousands of tiny pictures just to help us say things like “I’m tired,” “I’m crying,” and “this meeting could have been an email.”
Don’t worry, though. Written language is doing fine.
It just has accessories now.
The Emoji as an Accomplice to Cybercrime
Of course, because this is the internet, emojis have also found their way into less adorable territory.
Cybersecurity professionals have warned about emoji smuggling, a tactic scammers use to hide malicious information within emojis and Unicode characters.
For example, in a hidden code, a hacker might use 🔥 to represent “delete” and 🌐 to mean “download.”
Yes, even the innocent emoji can be dragged into the world of cybercrime.
That’s why cybersecurity services are increasingly important.
Modern cyber threats aren’t always obvious. In fact, sometimes they’re smiling right at you.
Final Thoughts on the History of the Emoji
We went from cave paintings to alphabets to punctuation faces to tiny digital icons that can express joy, anger, confusion, sarcasm, and the deep emotional burden of being left on read.
In the end, even the smallest symbols can carry a big message.
It pays to know what they’re really saying.
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Danielle Mundy is the Marketing Coordinator for Tier 3 Technology. Her fiction has appeared in Sketch Literary Journal. She creates engaging multichannel marketing content—from social media posts to white papers.
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