On World Emoji Day, Twitter announces the most used emojis of 2020
"The impact of COVID-19 on our conversations and behavior is evident in emoji usage trends compared to last year."
By AARON REICHTwitter's top 10 emojis of 2020, announced on World Emoji Day.(photo credit: Courtesy)Twitter on Friday sent out the statistics of emoji usage on the platform. The timing of this announcement coincided with World Emoji Day, celebrated annually on July 17 since its inception in 2014.According to Twitter, based on the usages of emojis in tweets from January 1 to July 10, 2020, the most used emoji was the tears of joy face emoji. This was followed by the sobbing emoji at No. 2, the worried face emoji at No. 3, the rolling on the floor laughing face emoji at No. 4, the heart eyes face emoji at No. 5, the pensive face emoji at No. 6, the fire emoji at No. 7, smiling face with hearts emoji at No. 8, the eye rolling face emoji at No. 9 and the thinking face emoji rounding out the top 10.This continues trends from previous years, where smiley emojis typically topped the list. However, 2020 saw new changes in the top 10, with three new emojis jumping from previous years. The smiling face with hearts emoji saw a 119% rise in use this year, seeing it move to No. 8 from No. 14. Likewise, usage of the fire emoji on the platform rose by 290%, moving to the seventh slot on the list from its previous spot at No. 28. The biggest rise was the worried face emoji, which saw a 415% spike in usage compared to last year, jumping to third place from 16th place.In addition to announcing the regular usage of emojis, Twitter also released a list of the top 10 emojis used in conversations related to the coronavirus pandemic as well as overall trends in these emojis. Most of these emojis in the top 10 were varieties of the house, applause and anxious emojis. Twitter's top 10 emojis of 2020 used in coronavirus-related conversations. (Photo credit: Courtesy)Recognizing that many people use Twitter to stay up to date on new developments regarding the pandemic, Twitter believes that the emojis used can reflect the overall conversation and behavior impacted by the crisis."The impact of COVID-19 on our conversations and behavior is evident in emoji usage trends compared to last year," Twitter said in a statement. "There have been spikes in usage for the shopping cart, face mask and toilet paper emojis, alongside drops in usage for emojis related to travel, attending events and haircuts."List of emojis that changed in usage rates on Twitter amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo credit: Courtesy)Users have also used emojis to share thank and gratitude to healthcare workers, grocery store employees and others. This can be seen in the 89% rise in usage for the thank you emoji. Other emojis were created by Twitter to be used alongside specific hashtags, such as ones launched by the hashtags #WashYourHands and #StayHome, which were developed in partnership with the World Health Organization.AdvertisementAlso on Friday, Apple gave its annual World Emoji Day announcement of its lineup of new emojis to be added in an upcoming update to iOS, IPadOS and macOS.Over 117 new emojis will be rolled out in the Emoji 13.0 release, and is expected to come out after the first stable release of iOS 14 this winter, business news site moneycontrol reported. Some of these new emojis include lungs, the transgender symbol, a face with a medical mask, a matryoshka doll and the pinched fingers emoji. The latter was announced earlier this year, and made waves in the Middle East as fulfilling the role of a “rak rega,” or “wait a moment,” emoji in Hebrew, or a “sabar,” or “shway, shway habibi,” emoji in Arabic.The creators at Emojipedia, however, described it as “An emoji showing all fingers and thumb held together in a vertical orientation, sometimes referred to as the Italian hand gesture ma che vuoi.” The news was welcomed by many Italians, and the official Twitter account of the state of New Jersey tweeted “endorsed.”Zachary Keyser contributed to this report.
