World Emoji Day
World Emoji Day is an annual unofficial holiday occurring on 17 July, intended to celebrate emoji; in the years since the earliest observance, it has become a popular date to make product or other announcements and releases relating to emoji. Origins. World Emoji Day is "the brainchild of Jeremy Burge" according to CNBC which stated that the founder of Emojipedia created it in 2014. "The New York Times" reported that Burge created this on 17 July "based on the way the calendar emoji is shown on iPhones". For the first World Emoji Day, Burge told "The Independent  there were no formal plans put in place" other than choosing the date. "The Washington Post" suggested in 2018 that readers use this day to "communicate with only emoji". NBC reported that the day was Twitter's top trending item on 17 July in 2015. In 2016, Google changed the appearance of Unicode character to display 17 July on Android, Gmail, Hangouts, and Chrome OS products. As of 2020, the majority of major platforms had switched to show July 17 on this emoji, to avoid confusion on World Emoji Day. Announcements. Since 2017, Apple has used each World Emoji Day  to announce upcoming expansions to the range of emojis on iOS. On World Emoji Day 2015, Pepsi launched PepsiMoji which included an emoji keyboard and custom World Emoji Day Pepsi cans and bottles. These were initially released in Canada and expanded to 100 markets in 2016. In 2016, Sony Pictures Animation used World Emoji Day to announce T. J. Miller as the first cast member for "The Emoji Movie," Google released "a series of new emoji that are more inclusive of women from diverse backgrounds", and Emojipedia launched the first World Emoji Awards. Other World Emoji Day announcements in 2016  came from Disney, General Electric, Twitter, and Coca-Cola. London's Royal Opera House presented 20 operas and ballets in emoji form, Google announced the end of its blob emoji and winners of the World Emoji Awards were announced from the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange and broadcast on Cheddar. In 2018, Kim Kardashian released her "Kimoji" fragrance line on World Emoji Day, Apple previewed new emoji designs including redheads and replaced executive photos on its corporate leadership page with emojis, Google announced the return of "blob emojis" in sticker form, and Facebook announced that "700 million  emojis are used in Facebook posts each day". On World Emoji Day 2019 the award for "Most Popular New Emoji" was announced as the Smiling Face With Hearts In 2020 the Most Popular New Emoji was announced as the White Heart on Australia's The Morning Show. Microsoft used World Emoji Day in 2021 to preview an overhaul to the Windows emoji set using the Fluent Design System for the first time. Facebook used World Emoji Day 2021 to announce Soundmojis, Google unveiled a solution for faster emoji updates on Android, and Emojipedia revealed sample images for the latest emoji  draft list. Events. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Andrew Rannells and Olivia Palermo attended the Pepsi World Emoji Day Red Carpet event in 2016. In 2017 Paula Abdul, Maya Rudolph, Liam Aiken, Jeremy Burge and Fern Mallis at the Saks Fifth Avenue red carpet on World Emoji Day. The Empire State Building was lit in "emoji yellow" for World Emoji Day in 2017, and the New York Stock Exchange Closing Bell was rung by Jake T. Austin of "The Emoji Movie" and Jeremy Burge from Emojipedia. A Guinness World Record was attempted in Dubai on World Emoji Day in 2017 for the "largest  gathering of people dressed as emojis". Musical "Emojiland" premiered off-broadway in New York City at The Acorn Theatre on World Emoji Day 2018 as part of the New York Musical Festival. In 2019 the British Library hosted an event on World Emoji Day with Unicode president Mark Davis and Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge discussing the future of emoji and the National Museum of Cinema in Turin launched the exhibition "#FacceEmozioni 1500–2020: From Physiognomy to Emojis" also on July 17. In the news. In 2016 Twitter noted that Australia's "emoji-loving" Foreign Minister Julie Bishop shared her birthday with  World Emoji Day. In 2017 US House Speaker Paul Ryan released a video on World Emoji Day claiming he "goes crazy on emojis" which was widely criticized. In 2018, "Adweek" reported that social media posts from the United States Department of Defense, Army and Navy seemed like "an odd fit for the breezy joys" of World Emoji Day, while other outlets called these "a series of bleached, seemingly nothing tweets filled with a bunch of random emojis" and "the most terrible bastardization of an emoji". In 2021, "Tourism New Zealand" used World Emoji Day to promote the concept of a  kiwi emoji. The pregnant man emoji design from Emojipedia was noted as ensuring consistent gender options, and to “recognise that pregnancy is possible for some transgender men and non-binary people”.