Google Reveals the Most-Used Emoji Every Year Since 2020, and 2026's Winner Is Everywhere

Google Trends just released a report ranking the most-used emoji for every year since 2020, and the 2026 champion is the sideways crying-while-laughing face. Before that came the pinching hand in 2025, the shaking head horizontally in 2024, the pink heart in 2023, the melting face in 2022, the exhaling face in 2021, and the eye-mouth-eye combo in 2020. Each one reads like a tiny mood board for that year.

The report also points to a generational divide. Boomers tend to use emojis the way they were originally intended, while Gen Z layers in irony and hidden meanings that older users may never decode. Emoji use itself has reportedly jumped 775% over the last three years, which tracks with how much of our daily communication now happens on a screen.

There’s etiquette involved too. NYC psychotherapist Lauren Tetenbaum told the New York Post that spamming the laugh-cry emoji can come across as insincere, and flirty emojis should stay out of serious conversations. So which emoji is your signature? Drop it in the comments and we’ll see which one wins our unofficial poll.