World Emoji Day is an annual unofficial holiday occurring on 17 July each year, intended to celebrate emoji; in the years since the earliest observance, it has become a popular date to make product or other announcements and releases relating to emoji.[1][2][3][4][5]
Origins and celebrations
The date originally referred to the day Apple premiered its iCal calendar application in 2002. The day, July 17, was displayed on the Apple Color Emoji version of the calendar emoji (📅) as an Easter egg.[6][7]
The New York Times reported that Burge chose 17 July "based on the way the calendar emoji is shown on iPhones".[12] For the first World Emoji Day, Burge told The Independent "there were no formal plans put in place"[13] other than choosing the date. The Washington Post suggested in 2018 that readers use this day to "communicate with only emoji".[14]
NBC reported that the day was Twitter's top trending item on 17 July in 2015.[15]
In 2016, Google changed the appearance of Unicode character U+1F4C5📅CALENDAR[16] to display 17 July on Android, Gmail, Hangouts, and ChromeOS products.[17] As of 2020, all major platforms except Microsoft had switched to show 17 July on this emoji, to avoid confusion on World Emoji Day.[18]
Announcements
Since 2017, Apple has used each World Emoji Day to announce upcoming expansions to the range of emojis on iOS.[19][20][21][22][23]
On World Emoji Day 2015, Pepsi launched PepsiMoji which included an emoji keyboard and custom World Emoji Day Pepsi cans and bottles.[24] These were initially released in Canada and expanded to 100 markets in 2016.[25]
In 2018, Kim Kardashian released her Kimoji fragrance line on World Emoji Day,[37][38] Apple previewed new emoji designs including redheads[39][40] and replaced executive photos on its corporate leadership page with emojis,[41] Google announced the return of "blob emojis" in sticker form,[42] and Facebook announced that "700 million emojis are used in Facebook posts each day".[41]
On World Emoji Day 2019, the award for Most Popular New Emoji was announced[43] as the Smiling Face With Hearts[44] In 2020 the Most Popular New Emoji was announced as the White Heart[45] on Australia's The Morning Show.[46][47]
Microsoft used World Emoji Day in 2021 to preview[48] an overhaul to the Windows emoji set using the Fluent Design System for the first time.[49] Facebook used World Emoji Day 2021 to announce Soundmojis,[50] Google unveiled a solution for faster emoji updates on Android,[51] and Emojipedia revealed sample images for the latest emoji draft list.[52][53]
The Empire State Building was lit in "emoji yellow" for World Emoji Day in 2017,[58][32] and the New York Stock Exchange Closing Bell was rung by Jake T. Austin of The Emoji Movie and Jeremy Burge from Emojipedia.[59] A Guinness World Record was attempted in Dubai on World Emoji Day in 2017 for the "largest gathering of people dressed as emojis".[60]
Musical Emojiland premiered off-broadway in New York City at The Acorn Theatre[61] on World Emoji Day 2018[62] as part of the New York Musical Festival.[63][64]
In 2019, the British Library hosted an event on World Emoji Day with Unicode president Mark Davis and Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge discussing the future of emoji and the National Museum of Cinema in Turin launched[65] the exhibition #FacceEmozioni 1500–2020: From Physiognomy to Emojis[66] also on July 17.[67]
On 17 July 2022, millions of people in multiple different countries across the whole world, including Japan and the United States, celebrated World Emoji Day 2022 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.[citation needed]
World Emoji Day edition dates
Pre-2022 (2014–21)
Edition number
Date
Also known as
Day of the week
1st
17 July 2014
World Emoji Day 2014
Thursday
2nd
17 July 2015
World Emoji Day 2015
Friday
3rd
17 July 2016
World Emoji Day 2016
Sunday
4th
17 July 2017
World Emoji Day 2017
Monday
5th
17 July 2018
World Emoji Day 2018
Tuesday
6th
17 July 2019
World Emoji Day 2019
Wednesday
7th
17 July 2020
World Emoji Day 2020
Friday
8th
17 July 2021
World Emoji Day 2021
Saturday
2022 and beyond
Edition number
Date
Also known as
Day of the week
9th
17 July 2022
World Emoji Day 2022
Sunday
10th
17 July 2023
World Emoji Day 2023
Monday
11th
17 July 2024
World Emoji Day 2024
Wednesday
12th
17 July 2025
World Emoji Day 2025
Thursday
13th
17 July 2026
World Emoji Day 2026
Friday
14th
17 July 2027
World Emoji Day 2027
Saturday
15th
17 July 2028
World Emoji Day 2028
Monday
16th
17 July 2029
World Emoji Day 2029
Tuesday
17th
17 July 2030
World Emoji Day 2030
Wednesday
18th
17 July 2031
World Emoji Day 2031
Thursday
19th
17 July 2032
World Emoji Day 2032
Saturday
20th
17 July 2033
World Emoji Day 2033
Sunday
21st
17 July 2034
World Emoji Day 2034
Monday
22nd
17 July 2035
World Emoji Day 2035
Tuesday
23rd
17 July 2036
World Emoji Day 2036
Thursday
24th
17 July 2037
World Emoji Day 2037
Friday
25th
17 July 2038
World Emoji Day 2038
Saturday
26th
17 July 2039
World Emoji Day 2039
Sunday
27th
17 July 2040
World Emoji Day 2040
Tuesday
28th
17 July 2041
World Emoji Day 2041
Wednesday
29th
17 July 2042
World Emoji Day 2042
Thursday
30th
17 July 2043
World Emoji Day 2043
Friday
31st
17 July 2044
World Emoji Day 2044
Sunday
32nd
17 July 2045
World Emoji Day 2045
Monday
33rd
17 July 2046
World Emoji Day 2046
Tuesday
34th
17 July 2047
World Emoji Day 2047
Wednesday
35th
17 July 2048
World Emoji Day 2048
Friday
36th
17 July 2049
World Emoji Day 2049
Saturday
In the news
In 2016, Twitter noted that Australia's "emoji-loving" Foreign Minister Julie Bishop[68] shared her birthday with World Emoji Day.[69][70][71]
In 2017, US House Speaker Paul Ryan released a video on World Emoji Day claiming he "goes crazy on emojis"[72] which was widely criticized.[73][74]
In 2018, Adweek reported that social media posts from the United States Department of Defense, Army and Navy seemed like "an odd fit for the breezy joys" of World Emoji Day,[75] while other outlets called these "a series of bleached, seemingly nothing tweets filled with a bunch of random emojis" and "the most terrible bastardization of an emoji".[76][77]
In 2021, Tourism New Zealand used World Emoji Day to promote the concept of a kiwi emoji.[78]