Most Discussed New Emojis of iOS 12.1

Smileys, hair types and human appendages are among the most discussed emoji additions in iOS 12.1.
Most engaging were the new hairless people (๐ฉโ๐ฆฒ Woman: Bald / ๐จโ๐ฆฒ Man: Bald), ย ๐ฅด Woozy Face, and ๐ฅฐ Smiling Face With 3 Hearts.
The new ๐ฆถ Foot emoji saw a disproportionate number of retweets compared to other high-engagement emojis, while the ๐ฅฐ Smiling Face With 3 Hearts saw almost no commentary, but a lot a likes and retweets which made it the third highest in this list.

Of the six new smileys in iOS 12.1, only ๐ฅถ Cold Face and ๐ฅณ Partying Face didn't make the top 10. It appears that the variety of interpretations (and potentially suggestive uses) of ๐ฅด Woozy Face, ๐ฅบ Pleading Face and ๐ฅต Hot Face led these to draw higher engagement than those with more literal and narrow use cases.
Measuring new emojis by engagement (likes, comments and retweets) on Twitter isn't necessarily an indication of how popular any emoji will be in real-world use, but it does give an insight into which emojis people consider interesting, notable or controversial in some way.
Notably, a number of the top emojis have been associated with existing slang phrases or memes (๐ฉโ๐ฆฒ = โwig snatchedโ, ๐งพ = โshow me the receiptsโ, ๐ฅด = โnutted but she keep suckingโ, ๐ฅบ = โspare coochie?โ) which goes a long way to explaining the oversized popularity of the bald emoji over, for example, red hair.
Yes, Stan Twitter Is Already Using The Bald Emoji To Say โWig Snatchedโ https://t.co/HLXl2HjlXl pic.twitter.com/hm3lWcmqjD
— MTV News (@MTVNews) November 1, 2018
Commentary on the seventh-ranked ๐ฆต Leg primarily seemed to focus on the โweirdโ nature of this addition, as opposed to a particular expression of interest in using it as an emoji.
Rounding out the top 1/3 of the list were almost exclusively food items and animals. ๐ฅญ Mango made it in the top 10, two spots ahead of the commonly-requested ๐ง Cupcake.
When @BakerMachado thinks no one wants a mango emoji
— Jeremy Burge ๐ฅ๐งฟ (@jeremyburge) July 18, 2018
cc known mango enthusiast @anildash pic.twitter.com/JnoUnBJrsv
๐ฆ Llama was the most popular animal, and ๐ฆ Mosquito the least popular.
At the less-discussed end of scale are household items such as ๐งบ Basket (displayed on iOS as a laundry basket) and ๐งน Broom, as well as objects such as a ๐งฏ Fire Extinguisher and ๐งฐ Toolbox. ๐งท Safety Pin may have seen more popularity if release in 2016 when it was used as a display of solidarity with marginalized groups.
I'm a little surprised to see ๐งฎ Abacus โ possibly the least relevant emoji of the new set โ is not at the very end of the list.
All responses are charted below, with 70 entries in total. Gender and skin tone variations for human emojis have been merged into a single entry per emoji group.

The List
All statistics in this article have been gathered from this Twitter thread, with numbers tallied from October 30 2018 to November 7 2018.
The date range used means that an emoji such as the ๐ฅฏ Bagelโwhich had a lot of scrutiny in during the prior weeksโdoesn't necessarily show as high as it might have done had the same thread been posted during the iOS 12.1 beta period.
It's also worth noting that while other platforms did roll these emojis out earlier than Apple, iOS is the only platform with a universally fast uptake of new emoji support, and thus it's rare to see widespread use of new emojis until they are released on iOS.
Rank | Emoji | Comments | Retweets | Likes | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ๐ฉโ๐ฆฒ Woman/Man: Bald | 166 | 831 | 3,969 | 4,966 |
2 | ๐ฅด Woozy Face | 429 | 947 | 3,400 | 4,776 |
3 | ๐ฅฐ Smiling Face With 3 Hearts | 31 | 721 | 3,500 | 4,252 |
4 | ๐ฆถ Foot | 329 | 1,300 | 2,600 | 4,229 |
5 | ๐ฅบ Pleading Face | 105 | 677 | 3,200 | 3,982 |
6 | ๐ฅต Hot Face | 85 | 623 | 2,600 | 3,308 |
7 | ๐ฆต Leg | 33 | 528 | 1,400 | 1,961 |
8 | ๐ฉโ๐ฆฑ Woman/Man: Curly Hair | 38 | 272 | 1,381 | 1,691 |
9 | ๐ฅญ Mango | 26 | 257 | 1,300 | 1,583 |
10 | ๐ฉโ๐ฆฐ Woman/Man: Red Hair | 90 | 237 | 1,197 | 1,524 |
11 | ๐ง Cupcake | 12 | 173 | 1,300 | 1,485 |
12 | ๐ฆ Llama | 34 | 250 | 1,100 | 1,384 |
13 | ๐ฆ Raccoon | 34 | 277 | 981 | 1,292 |
14 | ๐ฅถ Cold Face | 5 | 143 | 1,100 | 1,248 |
15 | ๐ฅณ Partying Face | 2 | 138 | 1,000 | 1,140 |
16 | ๐ฅฏ Bagel | 23 | 195 | 897 | 1,115 |
17 | ๐ง Salt | 24 | 163 | 793 | 980 |
18 | ๐ฆธโโ๏ธ Superhero | 2 | 123 | 815 | 940 |
19 | ๐ฅฎ Moon Cake | 8 | 115 | 806 | 929 |
20 | ๐ฆนโโ๏ธ Supervillain | 6 | 117 | 793 | 916 |
21 | ๐งพ Receipt | 9 | 145 | 714 | 868 |
22 | ๐น Skateboard | 14 | 130 | 674 | 818 |
23 | ๐ฉโ๐ฆณ Woman/Man: White Hair | 12 | 75 | 696 | 783 |
24 | ๐ฆท Tooth | 11 | 131 | 565 | 707 |
25 | ๐งฟ Nazar Amulet | 12 | 126 | 558 | 696 |
26 | ๐ฆ Peacock | 5 | 73 | 613 | 691 |
27 | ๐ฆด Bone | 18 | 106 | 556 | 680 |
28 | ๐ฆ Hippopotamus | 6 | 89 | 567 | 662 |
29 | ๐ฆ Microbe | 6 | 108 | 533 | 647 |
30 | ๐ฅฌ Leafy Green | 6 | 67 | 555 | 628 |
31 | ๐งธ Teddy Bear | 3 | 86 | 534 | 623 |
32 | ๐ฅ Softball | 5 | 79 | 464 | 548 |
33 | ๐ฆข Swan | 3 | 73 | 469 | 545 |
34 | ๐ฅ Lacrosse | 9 | 81 | 455 | 545 |
35 | ๐งฌ DNA | 7 | 84 | 412 | 503 |
36 | ๐ฆ Parrot | 3 | 52 | 440 | 495 |
37 | ๐ฆ Kangaroo | 9 | 64 | 375 | 448 |
38 | ๐ฆก Badger | 8 | 49 | 360 | 417 |
39 | ๐ฅผ Lab Coat | 2 | 48 | 360 | 410 |
40 | ๐ฆ Lobster | 6 | 55 | 341 | 402 |
41 | โ Chess Pawn | 3 | 43 | 336 | 382 |
42 | ๐งซ Petri Dish | 5 | 67 | 304 | 376 |
43 | ๐ฅ Flying Disc | 8 | 48 | 319 | 375 |
44 | ๐ฆ Mosquito | 10 | 52 | 284 | 346 |
45 | ๐งฑ Brick | 2 | 41 | 260 | 303 |
46 | ๐งผ Soap | 3 | 34 | 249 | 286 |
47 | ๐ฅฝ Goggles | 1 | 25 | 243 | 269 |
48 | ๐บ๐ณ Flag: United Nations | 3 | 30 | 227 | 260 |
49 | ๐งช Test Tube | 1 | 37 | 220 | 258 |
50 | ๐งด Lotion Bottle | 7 | 49 | 193 | 249 |
51 | ๐งง Red Envelope | 2 | 28 | 209 | 239 |
52 | ๐ฅพ Hiking Boot | 4 | 19 | 196 | 219 |
53 | ๐ฅฟ Flat Shoe | 4 | 25 | 184 | 213 |
54 | โพ Infinity | 2 | 29 | 178 | 209 |
55 | ๐งฉ Jigsaw | 3 | 19 | 186 | 208 |
56 | ๐ดโโ ๏ธ Pirate Flag | 4 | 31 | 163 | 198 |
57 | ๐งฎ Abacus | 1 | 20 | 174 | 195 |
58 | ๐งณ Luggage | 3 | 15 | 169 | 187 |
59 | ๐งต Thread | 2 | 25 | 160 | 187 |
60 | ๐งป Roll of Paper | 5 | 32 | 143 | 180 |
61 | ๐งจ Firecracker | 1 | 13 | 150 | 164 |
62 | ๐งถ Yarn | 3 | 20 | 141 | 164 |
63 | ๐งญ Compass | 3 | 11 | 149 | 163 |
64 | ๐งฝ Sponge | 4 | 17 | 120 | 141 |
65 | ๐งฒ Magnet | 2 | 14 | 123 | 139 |
66 | ๐งท Safety Pin | 1 | 12 | 125 | 138 |
67 | ๐งฐ Toolbox | 1 | 11 | 112 | 124 |
68 | ๐งฏ Fire Extinguisher | 3 | 10 | 106 | 119 |
69 | ๐งน Broom | 1 | 14 | 101 | 116 |
70 | ๐งบ Basket | 1 | 12 | 84 | 97 |
Further Reading
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