This week sees the 'celebration', if that's the word we're looking for, of World Emoji Day, the annual emoji-fest that has happened on July 17 for the last eleven years. This year we've largely been spared the usual range of strange additions to the emoji set, but there is a survey of what emojis are the most confusing. 

World Emoji Day is July 17 because that's the date shown on the calendar emoji, and sees events such as a competition to choose popular emojis or those that sum up the current year. 

The purpose of World Emoji Day is to promote the use of emojis and spread the enjoyment that they bring to all of those around us, but as we've muttered in the past, we reckon that here on the I Programmer team we're in the majority by limiting our output to smiley, face palm and the occasional throwing up emoji. We don't want to risk accidentally sending something rude while imagining we're boasting about what we've grown in our veg plots!

Our lack of confidence when it comes to other emojis isn't as shocking as we imagined, according to a survey commissioned by Preply for World Emoji day that found that 81% of respondents to the survey say they've been confused by someone else's use of an emoji.

Preply, an online language learning marketplace for finding tutors, surveyed over two thousand respondents across US states to find which emojis were most confusing state by state. Respondents were shown ten emojis that had been identified as the most confusing in a survey the company had conducted in 2023.

The headline 'winner' found to be the most confusing in 18 states turned out to be an emoji showing nail polish being applied to fingernails. To quote Preply:

While 40% use the icon to signify classy or being bougie, others say it means “just nail polish,” “Don’t mind me hehe,” and “self-care.” 

Next comes an emoji that could cause embarrassment. Officially called "Dashing away" 34% interpreted it as "Farting" and it was most confusing in 12 states.

The Upside-down face, chosen by four states was interpreted in widely different ways, with "Sarcasm" narrowly beating "Smiling through pain". Three states found the Persevering face most confusing and overall only 5% interpreted in line with its official meaning while the leading interpretation was "Frustration". Maine was unique in selecting "Sleepy face" as most confusing and in the survey as a whole 51% interpreted it as conveying "Sadness".

Looking at the results for all ten of the emojis it is evident that very few are interpreted in accordance with their titles and it is hardly surprsing that the survey found that almost half, 48%, of respondents have seen a misinterpreted emoji create an uncomfortable situation. 

The survey also looked into the most confusing emoji of those being released in 2024 and discovered that it was the Pheonix selected as such by 64% of respondents. As we reported this icon was announced to co-incide with last year's World Emoji Day, so this seems quite fitting!

More Information

World Emoji Day Website

Preply Study

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