what is an emoji

An emoji is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typed conversation. Emoji exist in various genres, including facial expressions, common objects, places and types of weather, and animals. They are much like emoticons, except emoji are pictures rather than typographic approximations. The term "emoji" in the strict sense refers to such pictures which can be represented as encoded characters, but it is sometimes applied to messaging stickers by extension. The word "emoji" comes from Japanese e (絵, picture) + moji (文字, character) . Emojis’ popularity arises in part from their usefulness in an online world that values simplicity and clarity of expression, especially on sites that set character limits, such as Twitter. Emojis can take the place of body language, facial expressions, and other nonverbal cues used in face-to-face communication.