Eggplant emoji facts for kids
The Eggplant emoji (š) is a purple emoji that looks like an eggplant. You've probably seen it used a lot on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It's one of the most popular emojis people use online!
The Story of the Eggplant Emoji
How the Eggplant Emoji Began
The eggplant emoji first appeared on phones in Japan. Companies like SoftBank Mobile and au by KDDI included it in their special emoji collections.
When Apple launched the first iPhone in 2007, it had an emoji keyboard. This keyboard was only for users in Japan at first. But soon, iPhone users in the United States found a way to get this keyboard. They did this by downloading Japanese apps. Because of this, more and more people wanted the emoji keyboard to be available everywhere, not just in Japan.
Becoming a World-Famous Emoji
In 2010, the eggplant emoji became part of something called Unicode 6.0. Unicode is like a big dictionary of characters and symbols that computers around the world can understand. The eggplant emoji was officially named "Aubergine" in Unicode.
Then, in 2011, Apple made the emoji keyboard a standard feature on all iOS devices worldwide. This meant everyone with an iPhone or iPad could use emojis! After this, emojis, including the eggplant, became super popular in the early to mid-2010s.
The eggplant emoji has been an official emoji since 2015. It's listed in the Unicode Technical Standard for emoji (UTS #51), which means it's a recognized and important part of how we communicate with pictures today.
