This document summarizes emoji usage trends in 2022 based on data from the Facemoji Keyboard app. It finds that while new emoji were introduced in Unicode 14.0 in 2021, the most popular emoji of 2022 were older classics from Unicode 11.0 and before. It also observes creative uses of emoji through stories, symbols, and text art. The top emoji varied somewhat by country and app, but favorites like 😂, 🥺, and ❤️ remained widely used globally.

1. State of Emoji
Report 2022
Innovative Emoji Usage in 2022
Casts Classic Emoji in a Whole New Light
July 2022

2. Summary
Though Unicode 14.0 launched in September 2021, this year’s top 10
emoji are still from Unicode 11.0, just like last year. We observed that
people haven’t yet accepted the new emoji in their everyday
messaging and want to use emoji in creative ways, including through
emoji stories, emoji with special symbols, and emoji text art.
Keep reading to learn more!

3. • Tried and true favorites: 😂, 🤣, 🥺, and 😘 didn’t budge from their
spots in last year’s ranking, demonstrating that people are
experiencing multiple feelings and it isn’t surprising given the
curveballs we’ve been thrown the past couple of years.
• Smiling through the pain: Emerging as a new superstar from
Unicode 13.0, 🥲 landed a spot in the top 20. But don’t let the tear
deceive you — this emoji is often used to express happiness or
gratitude.
• A year for watery eyes: Whether they were crying from laughter or
just straight up crying, the top three emoji all featured tears.
• Some things never change: Despite some slight reshuffling,
the core top 10 emoji remained unchanged between last year and
now, despite all the Unicode 14.0 newcomers like 🫠 and 🫡 .
• Can’t beat the classics: All this year’s top 10 emoji were from
Unicode 11.0, which was released in 2018, or earlier.
• Getting festive with emoji: Throughout the year, Facemoji users
utilized emoji to celebrate certain holidays, sending 🌹 the most on
Valentine’s Day, with 🙏 usage peaking on Eid al-Fitr, and New Year’s
Day featuring major usage spikes for ✨, 💕, and 💖.
Top Emoji of 2022
😔 🙄
😊
🙂 🙏 💗
🤭 ☺
🥲 😆
16th 18th
14th
11th 12th 19th 20th
17th
13th 15th
😭 🥺
❤
😂 🤣 😍
🥰 😁
😘 😅
6th 8th
4th
1st 2nd 9th 10th
7th
3rd 5th

4. Most Popular Emoji by Country
• Indonesia and Russia prove trendy: They were the only countries
with emoji from Unicode 14.0 (🤭 or 🥱) appearing in their top 12.
• Argentina felt the love: Seven of its top emoji featured hearts.
Of note, the classic ❤ made an appearance on every country’s list.
• Let’s not forget the furry friends: Mexico and the U.S. made sure
to provide some representation for furry friends, with 🙈 and 😺
showing up in their top 12, respectively.
• Argentina and Mexico felt the ✨magic✨: The sparkles emoji
ranked ninth and 12th on these countries’ lists, respectively.
• Indonesia asked nicely: Despite the plethora of hand emoji to
choose from, 🙏 was the only one to make it into any country’s top
12, with the classic 👍 noticeably absent this year.
• What to say when you don’t know what to say: 🗿 made an
appearance in the top 12 emoji across three different countries,
reflecting the 130% global usage spike.
• So cringy: 💀 ranked fifth for both the U.S. and the UK, landing high
on the list with a 250% global usage spike.
Top 12 emoji across each country (most-used emoji on the left):

5. Most Popular Emoji by App
Top 5 emoji across each app (most-used emoji on the top):
TikTok
❤
😭
😂
🟪
🤣
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
Instagram
😂
😭
❤
🤣
🥺
Facebook
🤣
😂
🥺
😭
❤
Bumble
😂
🤣
😅
😭
☺
Hinge
🥸
😂
🤣
😊
😅
Snapchat
😂
😭
❤
🤣
🥺
😭
😂
🥱
🥺
❤
Twitter
Tinder
😂
🤣
😅
😁
😊
WhatsApp
😂
🤣
😭
❤
🥺
• Twinning 👯: Instagram and Snapchat users had a clear consensus on their favorite emoji, with the same top five across both platforms.
• Undercover 🥸 : Hinge users kept their facades in place, with 🥸 earning a spot as the app’s No. 1 most-used emoji.
• Heart breakers 💔: Bumble, Hinge, and Tinder were the only apps without ❤ in their top five used emoji.
The irony is not lost on us.

6. New Ways of Using Emoji:
When emoji became commonplace in
messaging, the more creative users started
looking for new avenues to have
a bit of fun. We’ve seen this
displayed through emoji stories,
where users hold entire
conversations with minimal
words but maximum expression
and storytelling.
Emoji Stories
While most emoji shine all on their own, users now like to add
a bit of flair by combining emoji with special symbols. In this
way, even the most expressive of emoji gain more character
with each added attribute.
Emoji with Special Symbols
Recently, younger demographics on TikTok are joining
the trend of overlaying emoji with triangles and rectangles.
The ability to combine emoji with special symbols in Facemoji
Keyboard certainly comes in handy here!

7. New Ways of Using Emoji:
Text Art
Text art, also called ASCII art, uses multiple colored emoji to form an image, similar
to pixel art. Users can create different shapes with both emoji and symbols. While
text art has existed for years, emoji text art recently increased in popularity with
younger demographics on social media. Facemoji Keyboard now offers 1,000+
emoji text art options, empowering users to simply click and send without having
to create the text art themselves.

8. About Facemoji Keyboard
Facemoji Keyboard is an emoji-centric keyboard app featuring
speech recognition technology. It includes an emoji prediction
feature, a wide variety of stickers and customizable keyboards.
Facemoji Keyboard’s goal is to help people around the world
express themselves in new ways with fun, creative emoji.
Features:
Languages supported: 120+
Stickers available: 3,600+
Free themes: 1,500+ (including UGC)

9. Methodology
The data in this report covers global emoji usage habits of
Facemoji Keyboard’s Android and iOS users between June 2021
and June 2022. Emoji rankings in this report reflect global overall
emoji usage frequency by app and by country—displaying data
from Argentina, France, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, the
UK, and the U.S.
The data herein represents emoji usage on Facemoji Keyboard
only and does not include any emoji usage on any other built-in
or third-party keyboard apps.
Facemoji Keyboard highly respects the privacy of its users.
Any/all data that went into the creation of this report was fully
anonymized, as are all user messages sent via Facemoji
Keyboard.