How do new emojis happen? A look inside the mysterious group that approves them

Boston Globe:

Used by 2.9 billion people across the globe, these little pictograms have the ability to communicate across countries, cultures, and languages. If you were to consider emoji a language, it would be by far the most popular in the world. Seven billion Facebook private messages a day are solely emoji. And 72 percent of people ages 18 to 25 say they find it easier to express their emotions with emojis than with words.

This emerging language used by so many is controlled by just a handful of people — the powerful and mysterious emoji committee.

My wife was asking who decided on emojis after seeing the new ones and I found this very interesting article. I’m not a huge fan of sending or receiving them but the process of their creation is fascinating.