Since their 2012 debut in Apple's iOS 6, emojis have spread like ? to myriad platforms and become an integral part of our lexicon. Simply put, emojis add context and emotion to our texts and posts. And emojis very nearly are a universal language, with a few exceptions.
Online word-search tool Crossword-Solver set out to discover the most popular emojis in various regions and countries, as well as differences in how emojis are perceived; to do so, it retrieved and analyzed 9 million geotagged tweets.
So it seems the entire world is laughing and loving: The clear winner is the "tears of joy" emoji (?), the most commonly used in 75 countries. And in second place is the heart. Be careful how you use the latter, though: The study points out that in some situations, sending someone a red heart in Saudi Arabia can be considered a “harassment crime." ?
Here in the US, the tears of joy also rule. But you'll note that a little green square crops up as the most popular for several states—in fact, it's the second-most-popular emoji in the country. Yes, it's the Wordle emoji.
You'll find much more information about worldwide emoji use at Crossword-Solver's website.