In 1999, Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita created the first set of emojis while working for the mobile operator NTT DoCoMo.
At the time, mobile internet services in Japan were extremely limited, and Kurita wanted a simple way for users to express emotions and ideas in short digital messages. Inspired by manga symbols, weather icons, and street signs, he designed a set of 176 tiny 12×12 pixel images.
These small icons included things like smiley faces, hearts, weather symbols, and everyday objects, allowing people to communicate tone and feeling in text messages.
What started as a simple feature for Japanese mobile phones eventually spread worldwide and became a standard part of digital communication.
Today, emojis are used billions of times every day across messaging apps, social media, and smartphones, turning Kurita’s small experiment into one of the most recognizable visual languages on the internet.