The icons that dominated our messaging in a very strange year.
By
Chance Townsend
Assistant Editor, General Assignments
Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master's in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and Mother Jones.
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Credit: Ian Moore / Mashable Composite
The use of emojis in text messages is regularly derided as something millennials rely on too much. But they're still wildly popular — at least, according to Emojipedia's real-time tracker.
In April, iOS users finally got their hands on the new emoji icons introduced in the Unicode 16 update; we can expect to see the list of Unicode 17 in 2026. However, if you're on Android, specifically using Google's NotoColor Emoji, you can try the new emoji right now — including the highly anticipated Distorted Face emoji.
Emojipedia offered more insight into the emoticons winning our little red hearts earlier this year, via their World Emoji Day stats. Voting on the Unicode 17.0 release revealed that Distorted Face was the most anticipated emoji, followed closely by Fight Cloud and Apple Core.
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The remaining 17.0 emojis you can expect on iPhone in 2026 include Ballet Dancers, Hairy Creature, Orca, Trombone, Treasure Chest, and Landslide.
What's the hottest new emoji of 2025?
Drumroll please: The most popular brand-new emoji of 2025, based on the Unicode 16.0 list, is ... Face with Bags Under the Eyes.
Splatter took second place, followed by Shovel, Fingerprint, and Harp, rounding out the top five.
And finally, here are the all time rankings, per the emoji tracker — or rather, the most used icons since the tracker started tracking in 2023.
❤️ Red Heart
✅ Check Mark Button
✨ Sparkles
🔥 Fire
😭 Loudly Crying Face
😂 Face with Tears of Joy
😊 Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes
💀 Skull
⭐ Star
🫶 Heart Hands
Assistant Editor, General Assignments
Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master's in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and Mother Jones.
In his free time, he cooks, loves to sleep, and greatly enjoys Detroit sports. If you have any tips or want to talk shop about the Lions, you can reach out to him on Bluesky @offbrandchance.bsky.social or by email at [email protected].
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