Emoji are digital icons which depict ideas, objects or emotions and are often used in messages, emails, web pages and other forms of digital or printed communication.
They help add tone, personality and clarity to written text. A short message can feel warmer, funnier, more serious or more expressive when paired with the right emoji.
Emoji can represent faces, people, animals, food, places, activities, symbols and flags. They are standardized through Unicode, which helps the same emoji be understood across phones, computers, apps and websites, even though the artwork can look different on each platform.