Emoji Trends 2025
A data-driven look at how emoji usage is evolving in 2025. From the most popular emoji worldwide to platform-specific trends, generational shifts, and the newest additions to the Unicode Standard — here is everything you need to know about the state of emoji.
Top 10 Most Used Emoji (2025)
Based on aggregated data from social media platforms, messaging apps, and search engines. Usage patterns shift between platforms, but these emoji consistently rank highest globally.
Emoji Trend Explorer
Which emoji are blowing up? Which ones are giving "2016 texting"? Explore the cultural shifts reshaping how we communicate — from rising newcomers to once-beloved emoji that younger generations now consider a social faux pas.
Emoji Usage by Platform
Emoji culture varies dramatically between platforms. What thrives on TikTok might feel out of place on LinkedIn. Understanding these differences is key for effective digital communication — useful for marketers, content creators, and anyone who wants to stay current.
Heart and aesthetic emoji dominate. Sparkles usage up 40% year-over-year in captions and comments.
Twitter/X
Sarcasm-heavy emoji thrive. Skull and clown emoji used in ironic commentary and quote-tweets.
TikTok
Gen Z culture drives usage. Melting face and pinched fingers are rising stars.
More traditional usage patterns. Family and friend groups favor warm, straightforward emoji.
Slack/Teams
Workplace emoji focus on acknowledgment and celebration. Custom emoji culture thrives.
Key Emoji Trends for 2025
1. The Generational Emoji Divide Widens
The gap between how Gen Z and older generations use emoji continues to grow. While millennials and Gen X rely on classics like 😊 and 👍, Gen Z has adopted entirely different conventions: 💀 means laughing, 😭 means laughing harder, and the slightly smiling face 🙂 is considered passive-aggressive. This divergence creates genuine communication misunderstandings in workplaces and family chats, making emoji literacy increasingly important.
2. Aesthetic Emoji Culture
Emoji are increasingly used for visual aesthetics rather than literal communication. Instagram bios, TikTok captions, and Twitter/X profiles use curated emoji sequences as decorative elements: ✨🌙🦋 for ethereal vibes, 🖤⛓️🥀 for gothic aesthetics, 🌊🐚🤍 for coastal grandmother energy. This trend treats emoji as a design language rather than a communication tool, reflecting how digital identity expression continues to evolve.
3. Workplace Emoji Etiquette Evolves
As remote work solidifies, emoji in professional contexts have become more accepted but also more layered. The thumbs up 👍 has become controversial — younger workers see it as dismissive while older colleagues use it as simple acknowledgment. Companies are developing internal emoji guidelines, and platforms like Slack report that custom workplace emoji usage has grown 300% since 2022.
4. New Unicode 16.0 Emoji
Unicode 16.0 brought several new emoji to screens in 2025, including the fingerprint, leafless tree, harp, and shovel. The root vegetable emoji addresses a long-standing gap in food representation. Perhaps most notably, the face with bags under eyes emoji has resonated strongly with users, quickly climbing usage charts as people found it relatable for expressing exhaustion and burnout.
5. AI and Emoji
The rise of AI chatbots and virtual assistants has introduced a new dimension to emoji usage. Users expect AI systems to understand emoji in messages, and AI-generated text increasingly includes emoji for natural-sounding communication. This has created interesting research questions about emoji sentiment analysis and whether AI can truly "understand" the contextual meanings of emoji that even humans sometimes get wrong.