Emoji diversity: how 'silly little faces' can make a big difference

As fans gather for San Francisco's first Emojicon, a researcher explains how your phone's keyboard reveals 'baked-in' values beyond poop and eggplants

When Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge sent his fiancee to the wrong side of London for dinner, he sent an apologetic text message. He received an emoji-less reply: "It's fine."

"We all know that's not what it means at all. That means 'it's not fine'," he said, pointing out that emoji have infiltrated language so deeply that their absence from that message carries a meaning that we all understand. Once considered a nerd topic, emoji have now become a mainstream medium, Burge says - and San Francisco's first Emojicon conference seems to agree.