Tomorrow is the annual World Emoji Day (July 17).

At The Scotsman, we haven’t added these to the style guide yet, though I’m sure they might have enhanced our recent offerings.

If I had anything to do with it, the blonde haired man and the aubergine might have been rather overused in news stories over the last week or so.

It’s strange to think of the days when all we had was : ) or ; “ ( to express our feelings.

Now, on my WhatsApp keyboard, I have options including a chipmunk, a Ferris wheel, sushi and an ambulance.

Coincidentally, that’s my weekend in a nutshell, though I’ve never used any of them in a text message.

My nieces enjoy the unicorn with the rainbow horn and the youngest prefers emojis, along with chimpanzee and kitten gifs, rather than words.

In contrast, the senior members of my family seem to use an excess of pretty ones, like hearts and flowers, as if they were decorations on printed note paper. I feel that Generation Z thinks they’re very uncool and uses them a lot more sparingly.

Apparently, the most popular ones in the UK for 2022 are the tears of joy and the loudly crying emoticons. We are a mercurial and confused bunch.

Although there is already an incredible 3,633 in existence, since they were invented by Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita back in 1999, there are more to come. Earlier this week, the emoji reference website, Emojipedia, teased 15 new designs. They are waiting to be approved by the Unicode Consortium, who develop and maintain software standards. Depending on your brand of phone, our emoji keyboards may show them from September onwards.

They include a plain pink heart, which has been the most requested, a crow, various pushing hands, a goose, pea pod, a donkey, a jellyfish, ginger, maracas and a khanda - the symbol of Sikhism.

There’s also a blurry and confused face.

I’m going to petition for it to be my new byline picture.

This World Emoji Day, brace yourself for the arrival of a jellyfish, goose and ginger