*By Alisha Haridasani*
Apparently the texting world was very contemplative this year.
According to an online survey, the ‘Thinking Face’ emoji best describes 2018ーmaking it the winner of the Best Emoji of the Year in Emojipedia’s annual awards honoring World Emoji Day.
The other honoree was the ‘Exploding Head,' which won for Best New Emoji.
“These are put out to a popular vote, we put it out to the whole World Emoji Day network,” said Jeremy Burge, Chief Emoji Officer at Emojipedia. “This is the will of the people."
Voting was open for two weeks and closed on Tuesday.
Apple also marked World Emoji Day by revealing that dozens of new emojis will be added to iOS 12 later this year.
Redheads, bald people, and people with graying hair are among Apple’s newcomersーpart of the company’s latest attempts to increase diversity and inclusion among its slate of emojis, said Burge.
A peacock, a caped superhero, a cupcake, and the surprisingly popular mango were also added to iOS 12.
“There are so many mango fans out there,” explained Burge. “Mango’s popular, trust me.”
Apple integrated emojis onto its platform in 2012, catalyzing significant growth in usage, said Burge. In the years since, emojis have rapidly become universal symbols for laughter, love, anger...and whatever the folded hands mean.
There are currently almost 3,000 emojis approved by encoding organization Unicode, and most of them ー around 2,300 ー are used daily. According to data released by Facebook last week, over 900 million emoji-only messages are sent over the Messenger app every day. Emojis even shape our email habits: analytics company Leanplum reports emails with emojis are opened 66 percent more often than emails without the symbols.
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/winners-of-2018-emoji-awards-revealed)
Music group North Star Boys joins Cheddar News to discuss their debut single, shutting down Times Square, and representing the Asian community through music.
On this episode of ChedHER: Author of 'The Glass Ledge: How to Break Through Self-Sabotage, Embrace Your Power, and Create Your Success' discusses what exactly the 'glass ledge' is and how to overcome negative self-perception; Co-Owner of Wanderlust Creamery explains the story behind launching her very own ice cream business, and how she's overcome hurdles as a business owner; Chief Marketing Officer at Great Learning and Capacity Planning Analyst at Salesforce discuss how upskilling can help you advance in your career.
Adrienne Borlongan, Co-Owner of Wanderlust Creamery, joins ChedHER to discuss the story behind launching her very own ice cream business, and how she's overcome hurdles as a business owner.
Iman Oubou, Author of 'The Glass Ledge: How to Break Through Self-Sabotage, Embrace Your Power, and Create Your Success,' joins ChedHER to discuss what exactly the 'glass ledge' is and how to overcome negative self-perception.
Aparna Mahesh, Chief Marketing Officer at Great Learning, and Brandy Murray, Capacity Planning Analyst at Salesforce and Great Learning learner, join ChedHER to discuss how upskilling can help you advance in your career.
Umbilical cord blood banking platform Anja Health raised $4.5 million dollars in a seed round led by Seven Seven Six, a venture capital firm founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Anja Health offers a personalized, doctor-backed cord blood bank, which lets new parents freeze stem cells from their child's umbilical cord so they can be used to treat diseases in the future. It's a process Anja has called 'Hollywood's best-kept secret,' as celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Serena Williams, and more have all banked their umbilical cord blood. Kathryn Cross, the founder of Anja Health, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Actor Jimmy O. Yang is partnering with Chinese food chain Panda Express for his YouTube series "Jimmy's Kitchen." The comedian joined Cheddar News to talk about the partnership as well as upcoming ventures. "Panda Express could not be more perfect like even before this deal, I was just wearing a Panda Express hat for fun when I go outside," he said.
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay is displaying his world-renowned collection of historic memorabilia to the public for the first time in the Big Apple. Irsay joined Cheddar News to talk about why he's bringing artifacts from the Beatles to Jerry Garcia to light now. "I borrow all this stuff, you know, and I just feel kind of an obligation to share it with the public and make it come alive if you will," he said.
