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Irish Daily Mirror

'I'm Ireland's emoji expert, and one you've never used is about to blow up'

The 'tears of joy' emoji remains the most popular in the world but the red heart is a close second, an Irish expert has revealed. Keith Broni, who is the editor in chief of which is the world's number one emoji resource, said the icons are no longer considered 'frivolous' and are a 'cornerstone of digital communication.' The Dubliner also stressed the use of symbols is constantly changing and believes there's an unused one that will surge in popularity in years to come. When asked why they are so popular Mr Broni, who spoke to the Irish Mirror for World Emoji Day today, said: 'Texts are dry without any kind of semantic markers. We don't write text messages as if they're prose where there are cues …we write text messages as if they are verbal speech. 'And when we speak face to face or even over the phone there are what we call paralinguistic cues. So my vocal inflection, my hand gestures, my facial expressions, my body posture, all of these are very, very important elements in communication and text messaging and social media posts can completely lack these, and emojis allow for us to add semantic cues into this space.' He continued: 'That's not to say that emojis are a one to one analogues with the exact facial expressions that they happen to depict. They're intentionally bombastic, cartoonish, playful, comic book-esque, but they serve a very similar function. 'They allow us to create a sense of emotional context and also create a sense of rapport when we're communicating with people, again, either via WhatsApp groups or social media platforms.' Mr Broni said the most popular emojis are the ones which are overtly positive and said even negative versions are mostly used in a jokey way. He also said there's a shift - older people are sticking with the 'tears of joy' emoji to convey laughter while those in Gen Z have begun using the 'skull' to express that 'they're dead or they're dying laughing'. But an even newer trend that's popular with those on the cusp of Gen Z and Gen Alpha is using the Wilted flower with the broken heart. He said this is used by people when they want to show they're sad but in a "performative way'. Keith Broni, the editor in chief of emojipedia, is an emoji expert (Image: EMOJIPEDIA / SWNS) Mr Broni declared emoji uses were constantly being repurposed and even the most banal can surge in popularity - replacing ones which have been used for years. The emoji expert explained: 'I guarantee there is an emoji sitting there that has gone, largely unused and unloved for the last decade, that is going to have its moment in the next few years. People look at the emoji keyboard every day. It's a freely accessible feature that is usable anywhere. When asked how an emoji can become popular, he added: 'Sometimes it can be an in-joke amongst a group of friends in a WhatsApp group. And if that then resonates with that group, it can kind of spread to other WhatsApp groups, to other social media platforms, and then it can scale up and potentially be the new version of how the skull emoji encapsulated the emergence in slang terms of I'm dying, laughing and I'm dead, which then began to eat into the use of the crying, laughing face.' Mr Broni also said emojis use cannot be stripped from transcripts during court cases because the text alone doesn't convey the entire meaning and said this proves their use isn't frivolous When asked about the misconceptions surrounding emojis, he said: 'The one that they're frivolous, that they don't hold real communicative weight. This is one that has really and truly been put to bed over the last decade as they begin to appear more and more in court cases. 'You cannot strip emojis from a transcript of a text message communication, and expect the text itself to contain all the information about the tone and intention of every single text message. The emojis being used are very valid communicative symbols in this context. And this kind of growing literature around emoji in legal cases is quite fascinating.' Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.