2021’s Most-Used Emojis Top Off The Year With A Smile

By Mikelle Leow, 04 Dec 2021

Photo 191177821 © Mercedes Maldonado | Dreamstime.com

Can you recall the last time you texted a friend without using emojis? With face-to-face meetings no longer being the norm, you’ve probably been sending out more emojis and stickers lately than in the years before.

Considering the hectic past years, it’s surprising—albeit heartening—to learn that the most popular emojis this year have an overall positive vibe, according to a blog post by Unicode, citing data from the world’s emoji moderator Unicode Consortium, so it appears that many have been using emoticons as messages of encouragement for loved ones. Also worth noting is that the top 10 emojis of this year haven’t differed much from pre-pandemic 2019’s ranking (no list was published for 2020, unfortunately).

The number-one emoji of 2021 is ‘Tears of Joy’, which remarkably made up 5% of all emoji use, followed by the ‘Red Heart’. Quite predictably, most of the icons in the list are faces.

Interestingly, the leading emoji under the body parts category, which excludes faces and hands, is ‘Flexed Biceps’ (💪). Exercise, after all, is one way that people have been coping with sudden changes. However, the symbol also represents “strength, success, overcoming a struggle,” and—perhaps most apt of all—rolling up a sleeve to get the vaccine.

The emojis that were used the least were flags, despite the support people showed for their countries at this year’s Tokyo Olympics.

Check out the icons that summed up mobile conversations in 2021 below.

1. Face with Tears of Joy