Curiosity: Emoji Orientation

Why are emojis in motion going right to left?

Whether you use emojis like they're your first language or not, you've probably come across an instance you've wanted to use one, only to realize it's facing the wrong direction. And it makes a difference.

For example, you're not late to the party because you're chasing the cops (🚓 🚗), you're late because they're chasing you.

This piqued ZoCo Designer Ethan Newburger's curiosity: why is this? The short answer is that they were created in Japan by artist Shigetaka Kurita, where traditional writing orientation was vertical, moving right to left. This seems to be the most logical explanation we've found.

There have been rumors of being able to choose emoji direction dating back to 2017, but you may be able to soon with ZWJ sequences (where a combination of multiple emojis display as a single emoji). Unicode Emoji 15.1 is a set of emoji recommendations due to be made in September 2023. We'll keep our devices updated and continue sending random emojis paired together until one day they come through as one. 🤞

Memes are similar to emojis, right? Sorta. We covered them in a previous curiosity that you can check out here.

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Stay curious.