As our world has changed due to COVID-19, new ways of deploying emojis have sprung up in response.

According to data from the website Emojipedia, common ways of representing COVID-19 include the microbe emoji 🦠 and more generally the face with medical mask emoji 😷.

While the microbe emoji was first approved in 2018, different technology providers render it in strikingly different ways. For instance, the Apple version most clearly resembles a virus, while the Microsoft version is blue and resembles a bacterium.

Specifically, the primary function of emojis is not to usurp language, but to provide the non-verbal cues essential to effective communication, enhancing textspeak often with a splash of humour. But, as I explain in The Emoji Code, emojis have a number of related functions. For example, they can substitute or replace whole words. In response to an especially hilarious remark, sometimes nothing more is required than the face with tears of joy emoji 😂, which speaks volumes.

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